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THE  TWENTIETH 
CENTURY  CRUSADE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

MBW  YORK  •    BOSTON   ■    CHICAGO  •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  TWENTIETH 
CENTURY  CRUSADE 

BY 

LYMAN  ABBOTT 


A  crusade  to  make  this  world 
a  home  in  which  God's  children 
can  live  in  peace  and  safety  is  more 
Christian  than  a  crusade  to  recover 
from  pagans  the  tomb  in  which 
the  body  of  Christ  was  buried. 


Il3eto  gotfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1918 

A.U  rights  reserved 


Copyright.  1918 

bt  the  macmillan  company 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1918. 


INTRODUCTION 

THE   THREE    CROSSES 

And  when  they  came  unto  the  place  which  is  called 
"  The  Skull,"  there  they  crucified  him,  and  the  male- 
factors, one  on  the  right  hand  and  the  other  on  the 
left.^ 

Three  crosses;  three  sufferers,  con- 
demned to  death  by  the  courts  of  their  coun- 
try; suffering  the  same  physical  pains;  the 
same  oriental  sun  beating  on  their  naked 
bodies;  the  same  fever  burning  in  their  veins, 
the  same  throbbing  anguish  in  their  limbs  and 
heads. 

And  the  three  all  suffering  spiritual  pains; 
but  how  different !  One  of  them  a  criminal 
whose  life  had  been  spent  In  violation  of  law 
and  who  to  the  end  was  defiant  of  God  and 
man,  resentful,  angry,  with  all  the  torment  of 
a  defeated  will  and  a  remorseful  but  unrepent- 
ant conscience.  The  second,  looking  back 
on  a  worse  than  wasted  life,  longing  to  go 
back  and  live  that  life  over  again,  the  ghosts 
of  his  victims  passing  before  him,  the 
panorama  of  his  evil  deeds  unrolled  before 

^  The  Scripture  references  throughout  this  volume  are 
generally  taken  from  the  American  Standard  Version. 
V 


vi  Introduction 

him,  a  glimmering  hope  somehow  stirred  In 
his  heart  by  the  patient  sufferer  at  his  side. 
The  third,  condemned  for  "  Love  to  the  love- 
less shown,"  bearing  the  burdens  of  the  whole 
world,  feeling  the  shame  of  the  whole  world, 
suffering  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world, 
wounded  more  by  the  hate  of  the  malignant 
priests  than  by  the  nails  driven  through  his 
hands  and  feet. 

There  are  to-day  in  Europe  three  crosses, 
and  three  groups  of  sufferers.  There  is  the 
brigand  —  brigand  on  the  land  and  pirate  on 
the  seas  —  unrepentant,  self-satisfied,  self- 
willed,  with  all  the  bitterness  of  a  defeated 
will  and  a  fiery  wrath  burning  within  him. 
He  has  broken  alike  the  laws  of  God  and 
man.  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal."  He  has 
robbed  and  plundered  nations  of  their  coal 
and  iron,  banks  of  their  money,  houses  of 
their  pictures  and  statues,  and  what  he  could 
not  carry  off  he  has  In  mere  wantonness  de- 
stroyed. "  Thou  shalt  not  kill."  ^  He  has 
murdered  innocent  women  and  children  by 
the  score.  The  score?  by  the  thousand. 
"  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery."  He  has 
sanctioned,  if  he  did  not  direct,  rape  on  a 
magnitude  never  before  known  in  the  history 
of  the  civilized  world. 

There  Is  another  cross,  the  cross  of  those 
who  have  sinned  and  have  abandoned  their 


Introduction  vii 

sins.  For  the  Germans  were  not  the  only 
people  who  have  exploited  the  poor  for  their 
own  benefit.  Warren  Hastings  and  Lord 
Clive  wrote  on  the  pages  of  India  more  than 
a  hundred  years  ago  a  history  which  England 
would  gladly  tear  out  from  her  records  if  she 
could.  The  late  king  of  Belgium  is  crowned 
with  dishonor  by  the  crimes  committed  in  the 
Congo  which  his  noble  nephew  has  done  so 
much  to  efface  since  by  his  self-sacrifice.  Nor 
can  we  claim  in  America  to  be  wholly  in- 
nocent. It  is  true  we  have  seized  no  man's 
territory.  We  won  Cuba  from  Spain  and 
gave  it  back  to  the  Cubans;  we  won  Porto 
Rico  from  Spain  and  gave  it  back  to  the  Porto 
Ricans,  making  them  our  fellow-citizens  and 
returning  to  them  what  we  received  from 
them  in  taxes;  we  won  the  Philippines  from 
Spain,  paying  Spain  for  all  her  own  property 
In  the  island,  providing  the  money  necessary 
to  recompense  the  friars  for  their  lands,  and 
now  we  are  giving  the  island  back  to  the 
Filipinos  as  fast  as  we  can.  But  we  are  not 
wholly  innocent.  The  auction  block  has  gone 
from  the  South  and  no  man  wishes  to  bring 
it  back.  The  schoolhouse  Is  gradually  re- 
placing the  wigwam,  though  far  too  slowly. 
But  the  slums  still  remain  in  our  great  cities, 
though,  thank  God,  there  are  political  reform- 
ers and  social  settlement  workers  and  de- 
voted Christians  who  are  doing  what  they 


viii  Introduction 

can,  despite  obstacles  and  opposition,  to  ban- 
ish those  crimes  against  humanity  from  our 
civihzation. 

There  is  a  third  cross.  There  are  no  sin- 
less ones,  but  there  are  thousands,  yes !  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  men  and  women  who 
are  laying  down  their  lives  for  crimes  in 
which  they  had  no  share  and  which  never  had 
their  approval,  who  have  never  exploited  the 
poor  or  been  deaf  to  the  cry  of  the  needy, 
who  have  found  in  this  war  simply  a  new  op- 
portunity^for  the  unselfish  service  of  their  fel- 
low-men, who  looking  back  on  their  past  life 
might  say  with  Job : 

I  delivered  the  poor  that  cried, 

The  fatherless  also,  that  had  none  to  help  him. 

The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came 

upon  me ; 
And  I  caused  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy. 
I  was  eyes  to  the  blind, 
And  feet  was  I  to  the  lame. 
I  was  a  father  to  the  needy : 
And  the  cause  of  him  that  I  knew  not  I  searched 

out. 

They  are  working  in  the  hospitals  at  the  peril 
of  their  lives.  They  are  sailing  the  sea  and 
defying  the  torpedo  boats.  They  are  serving 
in  the  trenches.  They  are  flying  in  the  air- 
planes. They  are  laying  down  their  lives 
for  their  fellow-men. 


Introduction  ix 

These  are  the  three  crosses:  the  cross  of 
the  unrepentant,  bitter,  wrathful  brigand;  the 
cross  of  the  repentant  sinner;  the  cross  of  the 
men  and  women  who  are  suffering  for  sins 
they  never  committed  —  for  sins  for  which 
they  have  no  responsibility. 

Why?  Why  do  Innocent  men  suffer  for 
the  crimes  of  the  guilty? 

Because  it  Is  eternally  true,  that  without 
the  shedding  of  blood  there  Is  no  remission  of 
sins;  because  we  live  In  a  world  which  Is  a 
battlefield,  in  which  righteousness  and  wick- 
edness, truth  and  error,  liberty  and  des- 
potism, justice  and  injustice  are  in  perpetual 
battle  one  against  the  other.  And  there  is 
no  way  in  which  the  falsehood,  the  despotism, 
the  injustice,  can  be  overthrown,  unless  there 
are  men  and  women  willing  to  suffer  for  the 
sins  they  have  never  committed;  to  make  sac- 
rifices that  by  their  sacrifice  they  may  give  the 
life  which  others  are  destroying. 

In  paganism  the  gods  are  feared.  In 
paganism  sacrifices  are  offered  to  the  gods  to 
win  from  them  a  reluctant  forgiveness,  to  ap- 
pease their  wrath,  or  to  satisfy  their  law. 
Jesus  Christ  teaches  that  man  is  not  to  offer 
a  sacrifice  to  God.  God  offers  sacrifice  to 
man.  The  New  Testament  is  radiant  with 
that  message:  ''God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  son."  He  is 
the  author  of  the  sacrifice.     "  Herein  is  love, 


X  Introduction 

not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us, 
and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins."  He  is  the  sacrifice.  "  He  laid  down 
his  life  for  us  and  we  ought  to  lay  down  our 
lives  for  the  brethren."  His  sacrifice  in- 
spires us  to  a  like  sacrifice. 

Jesus  portrays  God  as  a  good  shepherd. 
He  listens  to  the  crying  of  the  lambs  and  goes 
out  into  the  wilderness  that  he  may  bring  the 
wanderers  back  again  and  when  he  sees  the 
wolf  coming  imperils  his  life,  fighting  the  wolf 
that  he  may  save  the  sheep.  Jesus  portrays 
God  as  a  father,  bearing  in  his  soul  the  sin 
and  shame  of  the  wicked  son,  going  forth  to 
greet  him  and  bring  him  back  to  the  home 
again  when  the  son's  face  is  turned  in  pen- 
itence toward  him.  God  oflfers  himself  a 
sacrifice  to  man. 

And  what  the  Bible  teaches,  life  teaches. 
The  repentant  thief  did  not  suffer  sacrifice 
that  he  might  win  forgiveness  from  the 
Savior.  Jesus,  by  self-sacrifice  inspired  re- 
pentance and  the  hope  of  a  better  life  in  the 
brigand  at  his  side.  The  child  does  not  win 
a  reluctant  forgiveness  from  the  mother. 
The  tears,  the  prayers,  the  heart-breakings 
of  the  mother  win  the  child  back  from  his  evil 
doings  to  his  home  once  more.  A  pagan 
community  does  not,  by  its  sacrifice,  win  the 
missionary.  The  missionary  sacrifices  wealth 
and  comfort  and  home  that  he  may  win  the 


Introduction  xi 

pagans  abroad  or  In  our  own  land  to  a  better 
life.  The  sufferings  of  a  country  do  not  ap- 
pease the  wrath  or  win  the  love  of  the  patriot, 
but  never  in  the  history  of  mankind  has  a 
country  been  saved  from  corruption  unless 
there  were  some  patriots  that  were  willing  to 
suffer  for  it. 

This  book  is  written  for  those  who  are 
sharing  In  the  great  sacrifice  in  this  world's 
Golgotha.  Whether  they  recognize  Jesus 
Christ  as  their  leader  or  not,  whether  they 
are  Roman  Catholics  or  Protestants,  believ- 
ers or  agnostics.  Christians  or  Jews,  they  have 
taken  up  their  cross  and  are  following  him; 
they  are  laying  down  their  lives  for  their  un- 
known kinsmen  beyond  the  sea.  It  Is  written 
not  only  for  the  soldiers  In  the  air.  In  the  field, 
or  on  the  sea,  not  only  for  the  wounded  in  the 
hospitals,  the  maimed  and  handicapped  re- 
turning home,  and  the  dying  slipping  away  to 
their  long  home  through  death's  bright  portal, 
but  for  the  fathers  and  mothers  who  have 
caught  the  spirit  of  the  All-Father  and  have 
given  a  son  or  a  daughter,  perhaps  more  than 
one,  that  the  world  may  be  saved  by  love's 
greatest  sacrifice. 

I  have  some  reason  to  believe  that  what  I 
have  been  saying  during  the  last  four  years 
In  sermon  and  article  has  thrown  some  light 
on  the  path  through  the  strange  confusions  of 
thought  and  perplexities  of  conscience  which 


xii  Introduction 

have  troubled  noble  spirits.  I  hope  that  this 
little  book,  in  which  free  use  is  made  of  these 
previous  utterances,  may  render  a  like  serv- 
ice to  another  and  perhaps  a  larger  circle  of 
readers. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction  —  The  Three  Crosses  .     .  v 

First  Letter  —  Perplexities     ....  3 

Second  Letter  — The  Battle  of  Life     .  12 

Third  Letter  —  The  Peacemakers     .      .  25 

Fourth  Letter  —  The  Old  Gospel     .     .  36 

Fifth  Letter  —  "  We  Glory  in  Tribula- 
tions "        50 

Sixth  Letter  —  "  The  Republic  of  God  "  61 

Seventh  Letter  —  Christ's  Peace       .     .  76 

Eighth  Letter  —  "  Show  Me  Thy  Paths, 

O  Lord" 91 

Ninth  Letter  —  Coronation    ....  loi 


THE  TWENTIETH 
CENTURY  CRUSADE 


The  Twentieth  Century 
Crusade 


FIRST  LETTER 

PERPLEXITIES 

So  your  son  has  sailed  from  some  port  in 
the  United  States  to  some  port  in  France. 
The  last  farewells  have  been  given  though 
the  last  tears  have  not  been  shed.  There 
are  some  homesick  hours  before  him.  There 
are  many  anxious  hours  before  you.  And 
whether  he  will  come  back  to  be  your  com- 
panion and  perhaps  your  guardian  and  sup- 
port, or  come  back  a  perpetual  invalid  to  be 
the  object  of  your  nursing  solicitude,  or  never 
come  back,  accounted  for  only  among  ''  the 
missing,"  you  cannot  know.  Believe  me  that 
I  am  fully  conscious  of  what  this  sacrifice 
means  to  you  and  to  him.  And  yet  I  am  writ- 
ing this  letter  not  to  condole  with  you  but  to 
congratulate  you. 

I  remember  that  you  have  hanging  in  your 


4        The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

hall  a  sword  of  which  you  are  the  proud  pos- 
sessor. It  was  worn  by  your  great-grand- 
father as  a  captain,  If  I  recall  aright,  at  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  It  entitles  you  to  the 
honorable  title  of  Daughter  of  the  Revolu- 
tion—  or  Is  it  Daughter  of  the  American 
Revolution?  I  am  afraid  I  have  not  a  clear 
idea  of  the  difference  between  these  sister 
societies. 

I  think  you  are  much  more  to  be  con- 
gratulated on  being  the  mother  of  your  son 
than  on  being  the  great-grand-daughter  of 
your  great-grandfather;  on  being  one  of  the 
mothers  of  the  present  war  to  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy,  than  on  being  one  of  the 
daughters  of  the  American  Revolution.  For 
you  could  not  avoid  being  a  daughter  of  the 
American  Revolution,  but  It  is  your  clear 
vision  and  your  womanly  courage  which  has 
made  you  a  mother  of  the  war  to  make  the 
jvorld  safe  from  the  Hun. 

If  you  could  only  be  sure  that  you  have 
decided  rightly  and  that  your  son  has  acted 
rightly!  But  there  Is  no  perplexity  so  hard 
to  bear  as  that  of  a  perplexed  conscience. 
And  in  the  tangle  of  contradictory  reports 
and  conflicting  opinions  respecting  this  present 
war  you  are  not  always  sure.  You  would 
accept  my  congratulations  with  a  better  heart 
if  you  could  only  be  as  clear  respecting  the  is- 


Perplexities  5 

sues  of  19 1 8  as  you  are  of  the  issues  of  1776. 
Edwin  Austin  Abbey  2nd  in  the  letters  of  "A 
Gentleman  Unafraid,"  published  in  the  At- 
lantic Monthly  of  April,  19 18,  puts  this  per- 
plexity with  admirable  clearness:  *' Honor 
demands  that  we  enter  the  war,  humanity  that 
we  stay  out."  I  think  this  perplexity  has  as- 
sailed the  mothers  more  than  the  sons.  For 
the  maternal  solicitude  of  the  mother  re- 
enforces  the  claims  of  humanity,  and  the  glory 
of  achievement  in  the  son  reenforces  the 
claims  of  honor. 

But  you  are  mistaken  if  you  imagine  that 
the  issue  was  clearer  to  the  men  and  women 
of  1776  than  it  is  to  the  men  and  women  of 
19 1 8.  It  is  always  easy  to  determine  the 
path  of  duty  when  history  has  interpreted  the 
enigmatical  events,  but  always  difficult  while 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  these  events;  as  it  was 
difficult  for  the  early  explorers  to  decide 
whether  the  Mississippi  flowed  into  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  or  into  the  Pacific  Ocean,  while 
now  we  wonder  at  their  doubts. 

In  1776  there  were  conscientious  objectors 
who  believed  that  all  war  is  wrong  and  who 
affirmed  their  conviction  that  "  the  setting  up 
and  putting  down  kings  and  governments  is 
God's  peculiar  prerogative  for  causes  best 
known  to  himself,  and  it  is  not  our  business 
to  have  any  hand  or  contrivance  therein." 


6         The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

There  were  English-Americans  then  as  there 
are  German-Americans  now:  and  they  had  an 
excuse  if  not  a  justification  for  adhering  to 
the  cause  of  their  mother  country  then,  while 
German-Americans  have  neither  justification 
nor  excuse  for  violating  the  oath  abjuring 
their  loyalty  to  their  Fatherland  which  they 
took  at  the  time  of  their  naturalization  as 
American  citizens.  Other  Americans,  who 
had  no  doubt  that  their  allegiance  was  due  to 
the  Colonies  rather  than  to  the  Mother  coun- 
try, opposed  the  war  for  independence  as  a 
foolish  and  fanatical  venture  sure  to  end  in 
disastrous  failure.  And  Samuel  Johnson,  the 
foremost  Anglo-Saxon  moralist  of  his  time, 
wrote  a  long  and  able  paper  to  prove  that 
taxation  without  representation  is  not  tyranny 
and  that  the  only  remedy  for  the  springing  re- 
volt in  the  Colonies  would  be  found  when  the 
Americans  were  "  reduced  to  obedience,"  an 
obedience  "  secured  by  stricter  laws  and 
stronger  obligations." 

I  honor  your  son  as  I  honor  your  great- 
grandfather, not  merely  because  he  had  the 
courage  to  offer  his  life  in  the  service  of  a 
world-wide  liberty,  but  no  less  because  in  a 
time  of  great  perplexity  he  had  the  clearness 
of  vision  to  perceive  in  which  direction  the 
path  of  duty  lies. 

Your  father,  I  remember,  was  wounded  at 


Perplexities  7 

Gettysburg  and  never  wholly  recovered  from 
the  effects  of  his  campaigning.  He  had  in- 
herited from  his  grandfather  the  spirit  of 
vision  and  courage.  The  issue  in  1850  when 
the  compromise  measures  were  passed  was 
complicated  and  perplexing  —  insoluble  to 
one  accustomed  to  judge  the  moral  value  of 
action  by  the  probable  consequences.  Samuel 
J.  Tilden  was  a  man  of  high  principle  and  re- 
markably clear  political  intelligence.  Up  to 
1850  he  had  been  an  anti-slavery  man.  He 
never  became  a  pro-slavery  man.  But  he 
foresaw  that  insistence  on  the  Constitutional 
right  of  the  Nation  to  prohibit  the  extension 
of  slavery  would  inevitably  bring  on  civil  war, 
and  he  was  sure  that  civil  war  would  result 
either  in  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  or  in  the 
government  of  a  defeated  South  by  a  victor- 
ious North  —  a  condition  absolutely  incom- 
patible with  either  true  liberty  or  a  true  union 
of  the  States.  Abraham  Lincoln  cut  through 
all  such  arguments  of  philosophers  who  meas- 
ured moral  principles  by  anticipated  results. 
If,  he  said  in  his  Cooper  Union  speech,  slav- 
ery is  right,  we  ought  to  do  all  that  the  South 
asks  of  us.  If  slavery  is  wrong,  we  have  no 
right  to  fasten  it  upon  territories  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  which  we  are  responsible.  I  am 
quoting  not  his  words,  but  interpreting  his 
spirit.     From  that  position  he  never  for  a 


8         The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

moment  wavered  and  in  his  second  Inaugural 
address  repeated  it  in  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent sentences  he  ever  uttered :  "Fondly  do 
we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall 
be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn 
by  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  that  the 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

I  honor  your  boy  as  I  honor  your  father 
and  as  I  honor  Abraham  Lincoln,  not  merely 
because  he  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions 
and  has  sought  the  privilege  of  offering  his 
life  for  the  life  of  the  world,  but  because  he 
sees  so  clearly  that  compromise  with  murder, 
robbery  and  rape  would  make  the  Nation  ac- 
cessory in  those  crimes  and  that  honor  and 
humanity  unite  in  demanding  of  the  men  of 
America  that  they  enter  this  war.  To  have 
stayed  out  would  have  been  to  go  down  to 
history  with  the  inscription  of  Ephraim  on 
our  tomb : 

The  children  of  Ephraim,  being  armed  and  carrying 

bows, 
Turned  back  in  the  day  of  battle. 


Perplexities  9 

Whether  your  son  comes  back,  or  is 
brought  back  maimed,  or  is  buried  in  an  un- 
known grave  in  a  foreign  land,  I  congratulate 
you  on  having  such  a  son  with  so  clear  a 
vision  and  so  steady  a  heart.  The  remem- 
brance of  a  brave  son  is  better  than  the  com- 
panionship of  a  cowardly  one.  And  I  con- 
gratulate you  that  you  have  brought  up  your 
boy  to  be  such  a  soldier  in  such  a  war  as  this. 
Louder  than  addresses,  sermons,  editorials, 
or  Presidential  messages  are  the  actions  of 
our  brave  young  men  summoning  the  Nation 
to  its  solemn  duty : 

Be  not  deaf  to  the  sound  that  warns, 
Be  not  gull'd  by  a  despot's  plea! 
Are  figs  of  thistles?  or  grapes  of  thorns? 
How  can  a  despot  feel  with  the  Free? 
Form,   form,   Riflemen,   form! 
Riflemen,  Riflemen,  Riflemen,  form! 

These  lines  were  written  by  one  of  Eng^ 
land's  greatest  poets.  But  it  is  greater  to 
live  poetry  than  to  write  it;  the  heroic  life  is 
more  eloquent  than  the  poet's  summons  to 
heroism.  It  is  a  cause  for  profound  grati- 
tude that  your  heavenly  Father  has  given  you 
a  son  who  could  not  be  deceived  by  the  pleas 
of  a  placid  pacifism,  who  could  not  be  per- 
suaded that  to  acquiesce  in  monstrous  crime 
is  to  follow  Jesus  Christ. 


lo      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

As  this  war  goes  on  and  the  American 
casualties  increase,  the  tragedy  of  It  will  be 
more  and  more  impressed  upon  us,  and  more 
and  more  we  shall  realize  the  meaning  of 
Sherman's  oft  quoted  sentence,  "  War  is 
hell."  Against  the  temptation  to  seek  peace 
hy  compromise  with  wickedness  which  this 
y  tragedy  will  bring  with  It,  we  need  to  fortify 
ourselves  by  an  unassailable  conviction  that 
there  are  experiences  which,  If  permitted, 
would  be  worse  than  hell.  If  this  were  not 
so,  a  just  God  would  never  allow  hell  to  exist. 
The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  was  worse 
than  the  war  bravely  fought  by  the  Nether- 
landers  to  defend  their  country  from  Spanish 
despotism.  The  massacre  of  the  unresist- 
ing Jews  by  the  Russians  was  worse  than  the 
Russo-Japanese  War.  The  massacre  of  the 
unresisting  Armenians  by  the  Turks  was 
worse  than  the  Crimean  War.  Crime  un- 
punished, unrestrained,  unprevented;  crim- 
inals uncured;  greed,  cruelty,  malice,  allowed 
to  riot  unchecked ;  purity  and  innocence  unpro- 
tected from  rapacity  and  lust:  these  are  infi- 
nitely worse  than  the  hell  which  Jonathan 
Edwards,  Milton,  and  Dante  portrayed. 
Your  son  has  joined  the  noble  army  of  patri- 
ots who  In  all  epochs  have  been  found  ready 
to  give  their  lives  in  the  age-long  campaign 


Perplexities  1 1 

between  right  and  wrong,  as  Jesus  Christ 
gave  his  life,  for  the  salvation  of  their  fellow 
men. 


SECOND  LETTER 

THE  BATTLE  OF  LIFE 

You  are  proud  of  your  son;  his  loyalty,  his 
courage,  his  self-sacrifice.  Your  instinct  ap- 
plauds him  and  yet  —  you  are  perplexed. 
You  have  read  that  war  "  is  only  splendid 
murder  ";  that  "  there  never  was  a  good  war 
or  a  bad  peace  ";  that  "  peace  is  the  happy 
state  of  man,  war  his  corruption,  his  dis- 
grace " ;  that  "  war  is  wholly  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  ";  and  these  and  kindred  sen- 
tences you  have  heard  from  the  pulpit,  and 
read  in  books,  one  of  which  was  written  for 
the  very  purpose  of  justifying  America's  part 
in  this  war.  No  wonder  you  are  perplexed. 
No  wonder  that  your  conscience  demands  a 
clear  and  definite  answer  to  the  question,  Has 
your  son  done  right  in  entering  this  war?  or 
are  his  instincts  and  your  instincts  a  survival 
of  a  savagery  which  Christianity  has  not  yet 
entirely  conquered? 

The  question.  Is  war  right  or  wrong,  is 
like  the  question,  Was  the  crucifixion  the 
greatest  crime  or  the  greatest  glory  of  human 

12 


The  Battle  of  Life  13 

history?  The  crucifixion  Inflicted  by  Judas, 
Calaphas  and  Pilate  was  an  Infamous  crime; 
the  crucifixion  endured  by  Jesus  Christ  was 
a  divine  glory.  The  battlefield  In  Europe  is 
to-day  the  scene  of  the  greatest  crime  the 
world  has  ever  known;  and  the  scene  of  the 
world's  greatest  glory.  On  the  lurid  sky 
above  that  field  the  flaming  sword  of  Prussia 
writes  where  all  the  world  may  see  It,  "  Self- 
will  when  it  has  conceived  bringeth  forth  sin, 
and  sin  when  It  Is  finished  bringeth  forth 
death,"  and  by  Its  side  the  swords  of  Belgium 
offering  herself  a  sacrifice  to  save  France,  of 
England  coming  to  the  rescue  of  both,  and  of 
America  crossing  the  sea  to  aid  the  three  are 
writing  In  letters  of  celestial  light,  ''  Without 
the  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of 
sin."  This  is  what  I  wish  to  make  clear  to 
you  In  this  and  the  following  letter. 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  that  peace  is 
the  normal  condition  of  life;  that  conflicts, 
struggles,  wars  are  regrettable  episodes.  In 
fact  conflict  Is  the  normal  condition  of  life, 
and  times  of  peace  are  simply  preparations 
for  a  renewed  conflict,  as  sleep  is  simply  a 
preparation  for  renewed  activity  In  the  morn- 
ing. The  best  wish  we  can  have  for  our  chil- 
dren Is  that  they  may  so  live  that  looking  back 
over  their  life  they  can  say,  *'  I  have  fought 
a  good  fight." 


14      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

We  are  all  born  on  a  field  of  battle.  Life 
and  Death  warred  against  each  other  In  the 
mother  who  gave  us  birth  and  who  went  down 
to  that  door  which  Is  both  entrance  and  exit, 
not  knowing  whether  she  would  go  out  Into 
the  light  or  whether  out  of  the  darkness  a  new 
life  would  be  given  into  her  keeping.  For 
every  true  mother  Is  a  heroine,  who  In  the 
very  beginning  of  motherhood  lays  down  her 
life  for  her  child. 

In  the  cradle  our  battle  begins.  In  every 
one  of  us  are  microbes  of  life  and  microbes 
of  disease.  They  are  lined  up  against  each 
other  and  no  one  can  tell  when  active  battle 
may  break  out  between  them.  When  the 
healthy  microbes  are  In  the  mastery  we  are 
well,  when  they  are  attacked  we  are  sick, 
when  they  are  defeated  we  are  in  peril  of  our 
lives.  When  we  are  sick  we  call  a  doctor; 
but  all  that  the  doctor  can  do  is  to  reenforce 
the  healthy  microbes.  He  and  his  medicines 
are  but  the  reserve  which  every  competent 
general  keeps  ready  for  the  critical  hour  In 
battle. 

We  need  for  our  life  food,  clothing, 
shelter.  These  are  not  given,  they  are 
won  by  struggle.  Douglass  Jerold  said, 
"  Tickle  the  earth  with  a  hoe  and  she 
laughs  with  a  harvest";  but  any  one  who 
has  tickled  the  cornfield  with   a  hoe  on  a 


The  Battle  of  Life  15 

hot  August  afternoon  knows  that  it  Is  no 
laughing  matter  for  him  then,  whatever  it 
may  prove  to  be  in  the  harvest  afterward. 
Nature  gives  us  nothing  that  we  do  not  earn 
by  our  labors.  We  wrest  our  supplies  from 
her;  our  food,  our  shelter,  our  clothing  are 
the  spoils  of  battle.  We  pray  for  bread,  and 
God  gives  us  a  prairie;  for  clothing,  and  he 
gives  us  wild  beasts  which  we  may  hunt,  or 
sheep  which  we  may  tend,  or  cotton  fields 
which  we  may  cultivate;  for  shelter,  and  he 
gives  us  trees  which  the  woodsman's  ax  must 
fell.  The  comforts  of  civilization  are  fruits 
of  victory,  crowning  a  patient,  persistent 
struggle  to  overcome  insistent  and  continued 
hostile  forces. 

As  our  physical  life  and  the  supplies  which 
are  essential  to  it  are  the  fruit  of  warfare,  so 
is  our  education.  We  hear  of  self-educated 
men.  All  educated  men  are  self-educated. 
The  mind  is  not  a  vessel  Into  which  the 
teacher  pours  learning  as  the  milkman  pours 
milk  into  the  bottle  we  have  left  at  our  door. 
The  mind  is  a  seed  bed  and  the  teacher  a  sun 
who  bids  the  seed  come  forth.  But  If  the 
seed  does  not  burst  its  prison  walls,  the  sun 
shines  upon  the  earth  in  vain.  The  office 
of  the  school  and  college  Is  not  to  think  for 
their  pupils,  but  to  furnish  them  with  the 
ability  to  do  their  own  thinking.     The  object 


1 6      The   Twentieth  Century   Crusade 

of  education  Is  to  give  the  pupil  power,  and 
power  comes  only  by  struggle.  A  man  can 
no  more  become  a  scholar  by  accepting  other 
men's  thought  than  he  can  become  an  athlete 
by  looking  on  while  other  men  exercise. 

This  is  the  test  by  which  we  can  distinguish 
between  a  real  and  a  sham  education.  Sham 
education  gives  learning;  real  education  gives 
wisdom.  What  is  the  difference?  This. 
You  can  speak  of  a  learned  fool,  but  you 
cannot  speak  of  a  wise  fool.  Sham  educa- 
tion puts  learning  on  the  student;  real  edu- 
cation puts  power  in  the  student.  The  one 
student  is  a  parrot  who  repeats  what  he  has 
learned.  The  other  student  Is  a  man  who 
says  what  he  has  thought.  The  teacher  who 
asks  his  pupils  to  recite  correctly  what  the 
text  book  has  told  them,  the  minister  who 
asks  his  congregation  to  believe  the  doctrine 
which  his  sermon  contains  because  his  sermon 
contains  It,  the  church  which  asks  Its  mem- 
bership to  affirm  the  creed  which  the  church 
has  framed  for  them,  are  not  equipping  men 
for  life.  Equipment  for  life  comes  only  by 
living.  It  Is  only  when  the  pupil  has  wrestled 
with  the  problems  of  his  text  book  and  the 
hearer  with  the  theology  of  his  preacher  and 
the  member  with  the  creed  of  his  church,  that 
they  possess  either  wisdom  or  intelligent 
piety.     Wisdom  Is  not  minted  and  put  into 


The  Battle  of  Life  17 

circulation  for  us.  We  must  mine  it  our- 
selves. "  If  thou  search  for  her  as  for  hid- 
den treasures,"  said  the  wise  man.  He  was 
a  wise  man  and  in  so  far  as  certain  schemes  of 
education  are  based  upon  a  notion  that  wis- 
dom can  be  given  without  compelling  the  stu- 
dent to  search  for  it,  such  schemes  are  the 
reverse  of  wise. 

As  health  and  wisdom,  so  character  can  be 
won  only  on  the  battlefield.  The  mother 
who  wishes  to  keep  her  child  innocent  is  pre- 
paring her  child  for  failure  and  herself  for 
disappointment.  Life  conducts  the  child 
from  the  innocence  of  babyhood  through  the 
struggles  of  experience  to  the  virtue  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  The  apostle  thus  de- 
scribes the  building  of  character:  "Giving 
all  diligence,  add  to  your  faith  valor;  and  to 
valor  knowledge ;  and  to  knowledge  self-con- 
trol; and  to  self-control  patience;  and  to  pa- 
tience godliness;  and  to  godliness  brotherly 
kindness;   and  to  brotherly  kindness  love." 

We  cannot  acquire  valor  without  meeting 
danger.  For  valor  is  not  the  absence  of  fear, 
it  is  victory  over  fear.  Marshal  Ney,  con- 
sulting with  his  staff  on  a  knoll  overlooking 
the  battlefield,  was  addressed  by  one  of  the 
men  with  the  sentence,  "  Marshal,  see  how 
your  knees  are  trembling."  "  Yes,"  was  his 
reply,  "  and  they  would  tremble  more  if  they 


1 8      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

knew  where  In  a  few  moments  I  am  going  to 
take  them."  Not  carelessness  of  danger,  but 
this  realization  of  danger  and  sturdy  resolve 
to  meet  It  Is  valor.  We  cannot  acquire  self- 
xontrol  without  a  battle  between  the  higher 
and  the  lower  self,  between  the  spirit  and  the 
flesh.  Temperance  is  not  absence  of  ap- 
petites and  passions.  God  has  endowed  us 
with  appetites  and  passions,  and  they  are  nec- 
essary for  our  existence.  Temperance  Is  self- 
mastery,  the  control  of  the  appetites  and  pas- 
sions by  the  reason,  the  conscience  and  the 
will.  We  cannot  acquire  patience  without 
bearing  burdens  and  burdens  that  are  hard 
to  be  borne.  To  be  thick-skinned  Is  not  to  be 
patient.  The  rhinoceros  Is  not  a  patient 
beast.  The  Greek  word  rendered  patience 
means  etymologically,  to  remain  under,  or 
waiting  for,  as  a  pastor  remains  under  a  bur- 
den or  a  soldier  awaits  an  expected  assault. 
Patience  remains  under  the  burden  or  calmly 
awaits  threatening  peril  from  which  Im- 
patience strives  to  escape.  We  cannot  ac- 
quire godliness  without  spiritual  struggle. 
Walking  humbly  with  God  Is  possible  only 
to  him  who  has  learned  how  to  look  upon 
the  things  that  are  Invisible  and  are  eter- 
nal, and  we  look  upon  the  things  that  are  in- 
visible and  eternal  only  by  pushing  our  way 
through  the  veil  of  sense  toward  the  invisible 


The  Battle  of  Life  19 

reality.  This  even  with  the  most  saintly  and 
self-denying  involves  a  life-long  struggle.  No 
saint  in  the  calendar  of  the  church  better  de- 
served canonization  than  Dr.  Edward  Living- 
ston Trudeau,  and  at  the  close  of  his  auto- 
biography he  sums  up  his  life  as  "  full  of  the 
aspirations  and  ceaseless  strivings  of  the 
spirit  for  expression  in  worship,  ever  groping 
to  know  God  and  ever  sustained  by  too 
swiftly  fading  glimpses  of  the  Heavenly 
vision." 

We  are  all  emerging  from  the  animal  con- 
dition. Whether  the  race  has  been  de- 
veloped from  a  lower  race  or  not,  biology  has 
made  it  Indisputably  clear  that  every  indi- 
vidual has  passed  through  a  lower  animal 
condition  before  he  came  forth  a  full-formed 
man  child.  We  all  have  something  of  the 
animal  In  us.  Every  one  of  us  is  a  zoological 
garden.  Nor  can  we  get  rid  of  the  animal; 
it  is  an  essential  part  of  our  earthly  life. 
How  to  domesticate  the  animal,  how  to  make 
it  our  servant,  not  our  master,  this  is  the 
individual  problem  of  every  human  soul. 
There  Is  no  one  so  saintly  that  he  has  not  at 
times  a  struggle  in  order  to  realize  his  ideal, 
and  there  is  no  one  so  blind  to  spiritual  values 
that  his  conscience  does  not  sometimes  rebuke 
him  for  shameful  thoughts  or  deeds,  or  his 
faith  sometimes  put  before  him  a  higher  ideal 


20      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

than  he  has  ever  attained  and  Inspire  within 
him  an  aspiration  to  do  better  and  to  be  bet- 
ter. There  is  no  one  of  us  whose  soul  does 
not  sometimes  respond  to  Tennyson's  prayer : 

"  Oh,  for  a  man  to  rise  In  me, 

That  the  man  that  I  am  may  cease  to  be." 

Paul  has  put  this  eternal  conflict  between  the 
flesh  and  the  spirit  very  clearly  in  his  letters, 
nowhere  more  clearly  than  in  his  letter  to  the 
Galatians: 

For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  -^nd  the 
Spirit  against  the  flesh;  for  these  are  contrary  the 
one  to  the  other;  that  ye  may  not  do  the  things 
that  ye  would.  .  .  .  Now  the  works  of  the  flesh 
are  manifest,  which  are  these:  fornication,  unclean- 
ness,  lasciviousness.  Idolatry,  sorcery,  enmities, 
strife,  jealousies,  wraths,  factions,  divisions,  parties, 
envylngs,  drunkenness,  revelings,  and  such  like;  of 
which  I  forewarn  you,  even  as  I  did  forewarn 
you,  that  they  who  practise  such  things  shall  not 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  the  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  is  love,  joy,  peace,  longsuflFering,  kindness, 
goodness,  faithfulness,  meekness,  self-control ;  against 
such  there  is  no  law. 

This  battle  between  Good  and  Evil  is  not 
only  an  individual  battle;  the  battle  Is  not 
only  in  the  soul  of  the  individual.  The 
forces  of  Good  and  the  forces  of  Evil  are 


The  Battle  of  Life  21 

organized  and  the  war  Is  carried  on  upon  an 
awful  scale  in  the  history  of  the  human  race. 
In  life  are  two  armies  confronting  each  other. 
On  the  one  side  are  the  organized  forces  for 
virtue:  the  home,  the  school,  the  reform  or- 
ganizations, the  philanthropic  societies  and 
the  church.  On  the  other  side  are  the  or- 
ganized forces  for  Evil:  the  houses  of  prosti- 
tution, the  gambling  hells,  the  liquor  shops 
and  the  vices  which  they  represent,  embodied 
In  forms  sometimes  masquerading  in  the 
habiliments  of  virtue  —  In  reputable  society 
inciting  the  animal  passions,  In  reputable 
banquets  stimulating  gluttony  and  drunken- 
ness. Not  least  among  the  organized  forces 
for  good  is  the  State.  It  Is  a  self-protective 
society.  Its  function  is  to  protect  the  indi- 
vidual not  only  against  crimes  of  violence  but 
also  against  the  more  seductive  enticements 
of  organized  vice. 

But  there  are  times  when  these  forces  for 
virtue  become  corrupted  or  controlled  by  the 
spirit  of  Evil  —  the  church  becomes  an  in- 
strument of  superstition,  the  State  an  instru- 
ment of  oppression.  Then  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  those  who  have  consecrated  them- 
selves to  the  cause  of  righteousness  to  do 
battle  against  the  church  and  the  State  be- 


22       The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

cause  they  have  become  the  weapons  of  false- 
hood and  Injustice.  One  phase  of  this  truth 
is  stated  with  great  clearness  in  ou**  American 
Declaration  of  Independence : 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident  —  that 
all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed 
by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed;  that  whenever 
any  form  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these 
ends,  it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abol- 
ish it,  and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its 
foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its 
powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness. 

Such  was  the  case  in  the  sixteenth  century 
when  Philip  II  and  his  henchman  the  Duke 
of  Alva  attempted  to  force  upon  the  north  of 
Europe  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  and  William 
of  Orange  by  his  vision  and  his  courage  saved 
the  Netherlands  from  becoming  a  second 
Spain.  Such  was  the  condition  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  when  Charles  I  attempted  to 
force  upon  England  an  absolutism  like  that 
of  the  Bourbon  kings  which  throttled  France, 
and  Oliver  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  by 
their  valor  made  England  and  all  English 
lands  forever  safe  for  democracy.     Such  was 


The  Battle  of  Life  13 

the  condition  when  in  1776  George  III  of 
England,  who  had  inherited  from  his  German 
ancestry  a  German  temperament  and  German 
autocratic  principles,  endeavored  to  govern 
the  American  colonies  in  the  interest  and  for 
the  benefit  of  England's  feudal  lords,  and 
Washington  and  his  compatriots  by  their 
swords  made  the  colonies  free  and  independ- 
ent States  and  "  brought  forth  upon  this  con- 
tinent a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and 
dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal." 

When  this  condition  arises,  when  the  State 
or  the  church  becomes  an  Instrument  of  evil, 
he  who  has  enlisted  for  life  as  a  soldier  for 
righteousness  must  either  betray  the  cause  to 
which  he  has  dedicated  himself,  surrender  to 
the  powers  of  evil,  and  become  a  passive  If 
not  an  active  partner  In  their  crimes,  or  he 
must  give  battle  to  them  whatever  may  be  the 
cost  of  that  battle  to  himself  and  to  those 
whom  he  loves.  There  Is  for  him  no  other 
choice.  If  William  of  Orange  and  his  com- 
patriots had  submitted  to  the  rule  of  Philip 
II,  Northern  Europe  would  have  lapsed  into 
the  condition  of  Spain.  If  Cromwell  and  his 
compatriots  had  submitted  to  the  rule  of 
Charles  I,  England  would  have  recovered 
her  liberties,  if  at  all,  only  by  a  revolution 
rivaling  In  its  horrors  that  of  France.     If 


24      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

the  colonies  had  submitted  to  George  III,  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  the  British  Empire 
would  ever  have  been  born,  for  England 
would  not  have  learned  the  lesson  that  only 
just  government  Is  stable  government  and 
that  just  government  Is  always  administered 
for  the  benefit  of  the  governed. 

That  our  boys  In  France  are  fighting  In  this 
age-long  conflict,  animated  by  the  same  spirit 
which  animated  William  of  Orange,  Oliver 
Cromwell  and  George  Washington,  I  shall 
attempt  to  show  you  in  my  next  letter. 


THIRD    LETTER 

THE    PEACEMAKERS 

If  you  were  living  In  a  town  In  New  Mex- 
ico and  a  gang  of  desperadoes  from  across 
the  border  were  attacking  a  neighboring 
town,  robbing  the  banks  and  stores,  murder- 
ing the  men,  and  preparing  to  carry  away  the 
young  women  to  a  fate  worse  than  death, 
and  a  band  of  citizens  was  starting  out  from 
your  town,  rifle  In  hand  to  defend  their  neigh- 
bors, you  would  wish  your  son  to  join  them 
though  he  did  so  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  This 
is  what  has  taken  place  on  an  enormous  scale 
on  the  other  side  of  the  sea.  We  speak  of  a 
war  In  Europe.  In  strictness  of  speech  there 
is  no  war  In  Europe.  There  is  an  Inter- 
national posse  comitatus,  representing  more 
than  twenty  civilized  nations,  summoned  to 
preserve  the  peace  and  protect  the  peaceable 
nations  of  Europe  from  the  worst,  most 
highly  organized  and  most  efficient  band  of 
brigands  the  modern  world  has  ever  known. 
This  Is  not  rhetoric.  It  is  an  accurate  and 
scientific  statement  of  the  facts. 
25 


26      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

The  classical  definition  of  war  is  furnished 
by  Charles  Sumner  in  an  address  on  the 
"  Grandeur  of  Nations,"  delivered  in  Boston 
in  1845.  It  Is  based  on  authorities  there  by 
him  cited,  and  has  ever  since  been  accepted 
as  an  authoritative  definition:  ''War  is  a 
public  armed  conflict  between  nations,  under 
the  sanction  of  international  law,  to  establish 
justice  between  them." 

There  are  two  things  necessary  to  make  an 
armed  conflict  war.  It  must  be  for  the  pur- 
pose of  determining  a  question  of  justice  be- 
tween the  warring  parties,  and  it  must  be  con- 
ducted under  international  law. 

There  is  no  question  of  justice  at  issue  in 
Europe  to-day.  ^ 

At  the  opening  of  the  war,  the  German 
Prime  Minister,  Bethmann-Hollweg,  in- 
formed the  Reichstag  that  the  German  troops 
had  occupied  Luxemburg  and  perhaps  had  al- 
ready entered  Belgian  territory,  the  neutral- 
ity of  both  of  which  States  Germany  had  her- 
self guaranteed,  and  he  added,  "  The  wrong 
—  I  speak  openly  —  the  wrong  we  thereby 
commit  we  will  try  to  make  good  as  soon  as 
our  military  aims  have  been  attained."  And 
with  that  declaration  before  them  the  Ger- 
mans, through  the  Reichstag,  endorsed  the 
war  and  have  ever  since  sustained  it.  In 
191 1,    three   years   before   that   declaration 


The  Peacemakers  27 

EcrnhardI,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  military 
party  in  Germany,  had  declared  that  war  is  a 
biological,  a  moral  and  a  Christian  necessity 
"  in  which  Might  proves  itself  the  supreme 
Right,"  and  he  added,  "  France  must  be  so 
completely  crushed  that  she  can  never  again 
come  across  our  path."  That  the  German 
military  party  had  been  preparing  Germany 
for  this  war  for  something  like  half  a  century 
is  no  longer  questioned.  That  the  Kaiser  is 
personally  responsible  for  bringing  It  on  is  no 
longer  questionable.  This  conclusion  no 
longer  rests  upon  what  the  lawyers  call  cir- 
cumstantial evidence.  It  has  been  definitely 
affirmed  by  German  witnesses  of  such  unim- 
peachable authority  as  Prince  Lichnowsky, 
who  was  the  German  Ambassador  to  Eng- 
land when  the  war  was  declared,  and  by  Dr. 
Miihlon,  a  German  citizen  who  at  that  time 
represented  the  German  government  in  the 
directorate  of  the  Krupps  gun  works.  And 
the  Kaiser's  ambition  was  foreshadowed  by 
him  in  a  significant  speech  made  In  1900 
on  laying  the  foundation  stone  of  a  museum 
at  Saalburg:  "May  our  German  Father- 
land," he  said,  "  in  the  future,  by  the  co- 
operation of  princes  and  people,  of  armies 
and  citizens,  become  sufficiently  powerful  and 
as  strongly  united,  as  extraordinary,  as  the 
universal  Roman  Empire,  that  at  last  in  the 


28      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

future  one  may  be  able  to  say,  as  was  said 
formerly  Civis  Romanus  sum,  I  am  a  German 
citizen." 

The  object  of  the  German  government,  as 
avowed  by  its  leaders,  is  not  to  determine  a 
question  of  justice;  it  is  to  crush  France, 
humiliate  England,  and  bring  the  civilized 
world  under  the  domination  of  the  German 
sword. 

Nor  is  this  war  —  I  must  call  it  war  be- 
cause there  is  no  other  short  word  to  use  — 
conducted  under  the  sanction  of  international 
law. 

Germany  has  openly,  flagrantly,  avowedly 
and  with  frankness  declared  that  she  does  not 
recognize  the  laws  of  nations,  nor  the  laws 
of  war,  nor  the  laws  of  humanity,  nor  the 
laws  of  God.  Her  motto  is,  "  Necessity 
knows  no  law." 

At  first  I  could  not  believe  the  reports  of 
German  atrocities  in  Belgium  and  France  to 
be  true.  I  thought  them  the  exaggerations 
of  newspaper  reporters;  then,  the  extravagant 
outbursts  of  individual  soldiers  in  violation 
of  law.  But  it  is  impossible  any  longer  to 
believe  this.  Three  separate  commissions, 
the  first  appointed  by  Belgium,  the  second  by 
France,  the  third  by  England,  have  investi- 
gated with  scrupulous  care  and  reported  the 
facts  with  names,  dates  and  places  given  in 


The  Peacemakers  29 

detail  and  substantiated  by  affidavits.  These 
reports  have  rendered  skepticism  any  longer 
impossible  except  for  those  who  think  that 
ignorance  is  a  virtue  when  knowledge  is  dis- 
tressing. Germany  has  been  asked  by  Great 
Britain  to  unite  with  her  in  an  investigation, 
and  Germany,  by  refusing  to  share  in  such  an 
investigation,  has  pleaded  guilty  to  the 
charge. 

Nor  is  It  any  palliation  of  these  crimes  to 
say,  as  has  been  sometimes  said,  that  they 
are  Incidents  characteristic  of  war.  This  Is 
not  true.  They  are  not  characteristic  of  war. 
They  are  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war. 

But  that  is  not  all.  In  our  Civil  War  Mr. 
Lincoln  appointed  a  commission  to  prepare 
rules  of  warfare  to  govern  our  army.  The 
draft  was  prepared,  it  is  interesting  to  re- 
call, by  Francis  Lleber,  an  American  citi- 
zen of  German  birth.  After  the  military  offi- 
cials had  approved  these  rules,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
If  I  may  use  a  somewhat  barbaric  phrase, 
*'  Englished  "  them.  Those  rules  of  warfare 
prepared  by  our  government  under  Lincoln's 
beneficent  administration,  became  the  basis 
of  the  rules  of  war  accepted  by  the  Hague 
Tribunal.  One  has  only  to  compare  these 
rules  of  war  of  America  and  of  the  Hague 
Tribunal  with  those  officially  recognized  by 
the  German  War  Book  to  see  that  Germany 


30      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

has  officially  put  Itself  outside  the  pale  of 
civilized  nations.  According  to  the  rules  of 
civilized  warfare,  war  is  conducted  against 
the  army  of  the  enemy.  According  to  the 
German  War  Book,  It  is  conducted  against 
the  people  of  the  country.  According  to  the 
rules  of  civilized  warfare,  churches,  hospitals, 
libraries,  public  buildings,  are  as  far  as  pos- 
sible to  be  guarded  from  destruction.  Ac- 
cording to  the  German  War  Book,  they  are 
to  be  destroyed.  According  to  the  laws  of 
civilized  warfare,  the  property  of  non-com- 
batants is  to  be  regarded  as  sacred,  unless 
military  exigencies  require  its  destruction. 
According  to  the  German  War  Book,  the 
property  of  non-combatants  Is  to  be  destroyed 
for  the  purpose  of  producing  terror.  Ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  civilized  warfare,  the 
captives  taken  In  war  may  be  used  in  peace- 
ful industries,  but  not  for  maintaining  the 
armies  or  manufacturing  the  munitions  to  be 
used  against  their  own  kinsfolk.  According 
to  the  German  War  Book,  they  may  be  so 
used. 

Not  only  have  the  laws  of  war  and  the 
laws  of  nations  been  ruthlessly  set  aside;  the 
crimes  that  have  been  committed  by  the  Ger- 
man armies  have  been  glorified  by  the  Ger- 
man nation.  The  Germans  have  boasted  of 
their  booty;  they  have  organized  triumphal 


The  Peacemakers  31 

processions,  struck  off  medals,  sung  hymns  of 
praise,  preached  sermons  in  pulpits  and  made 
addresses  on  platforms  in  praise  of  the  men 
who  have  committed  these  unspeakable 
crimes. 

It  is  then  not  rhetoric,  it  is  a  simple,  accu- 
rate, scientific  statement  of  the  fact  to  say  that 
in  Europe  the  Allies  are  fighting  to  protect 
lands  of  peaceable  people  from  brigandry. 
What  is  brigandry?  The  definition  in  the 
Century  dictionary  has  only  five  words.  It  is 
easily  remembered:  "  Highway  robbery  by 
organized  gangs."  Was  there  ever  highway 
robbery  conducted  on  so  enormous  a  scale  by 
so  ruthless  and  unscrupulous  a  gang  as  what 
Henry  van  Dyke  has  well  called  "  the  preda- 
tory Potsdam  gang  "  ? 

The  Archbishop  of  York  has  told  us  that 
we  ought  to  offer  for  the  Germans  the  prayer 
of  Christ  upon  the  Cross,  "  Father  forgive 
them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
Christ  offered  that  prayer  for  the  soldiers 
who  did  not  know  what  they  did.  To  them 
Jesus  was  only  a  common  criminal,  con- 
demned both  by  the  courts  of  his  own  coun- 
try and  by  the  Roman  courts.  For  them  he 
asked  his  Father's  forgiveness.  But  he  did 
not  ask  his  Father's  forgiveness  for  Caiphas 
who  declared,  when  he  conspired  Jesus' 
death,  that  it  was  better  that  an  innocent 


32       The   Twentieth   Century   Crusade 

man  should  die  than  that  the  Jewish  rulers 
should  lose  their  places.  He  did  not  ask  it 
for  Pilate  who  before  delivering  Jesus  to  the 
priests  to  be  crucified  declared  "  I  find  no 
crime  in  him."  He  did  not  ask  It  for  Judas 
who  confessed  that  he  had  betrayed  innocent 
blood.  They  knew  what  they  did.  I  will 
offer  this  prayer  to  my  Father  for  those  Ger- 
mans in  the  trenches  who  have  been  deluded 
or  driven  into  this  horrible  warfare;  but  I 
will  not  offer  it  for  the  Kaiser  or  his  accom- 
plices, for  they  do  know  what  they  are  do- 
ing and  deliberately  conspired  to  do  it.  I 
may  be  tempted  to  lie  to  my  fellow-men,  but 
I  will  never  lie  to  my  God. 

The  French  greeted  our  boys  on  their  ar- 
rival in  France  as  "  the  Salvation  Army." 
They  were  right.  It  is  a  salvation  army. 
We  are  inspired  by  no  territorial  ambition. 
We  want  no  more  territory.  We  have  been 
reluctant  to  take  territory  lying  outside  the 
continent  of  America  even  when  It  has  been 
thrust  upon  us.  We  have  no  political  ambi- 
tions. We  have  no  desire  to  govern  an  alien 
people.  The  responsibility  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Philippines  we  have  temporarily 
assumed  with  great  reluctance.  We  could 
not  with  honor  escape  it.  For  having  de- 
stroyed the  Spanish  government,  international 
law  and  national  honor  combined  to  require 


The  Peacemakers  33 

us  to  maintain  a  provisional  government  in 
its  place  until  the  Filipinos  were  prepared  to 
assume  its  responsibilities  and  exercise  its 
duties  themselves.  We  have  no  wish  to  dic- 
tate to  any  other  peoples  what  their  form  of 
government  shall  be.  We  are  equally  ready 
to  fellowship  monarchial  England  and  Re- 
publican France.  We  find  it  difficult  to  per- 
suade ourselves  to  interfere  in  order  to  pro- 
tect the  Russian  people  from  the  anarchy 
which  incompetence  and  treachery  have  com- 
bined to  inflict  upon  them.  We  should  never 
have  desired  to  interfere  with  absolutism  in 
Germany  if  Germany  had  not  attempted  to 
impose  despotism  by  military  power  upon 
free  peoples. 

But  we  cannot  stand  idly  by  while  a 
great  nation,  which  for  half  a  century  has 
been  preparing  for  its  crimes,  enacts  the 
part  of  a  pirate  on  the  sea  and  a  brigand  on 
the  land,  sinks  peaceable  merchant  vessels 
without  warning,  destroys  in  mere  wanton- 
ness churches,  libraries,  hospitals,  enslaves 
unoffending  men  and  rapes  defenseless 
women.  It  is  a  disgrace  to  a  noble  profes- 
sion to  call  the  German  officers  soldiers  or 
the  German  forces  an  army.  They  are  in 
the  strictest  and  most  scientific  sense  of  that 
term  brigands,  for  they  constitute  a  highly 
organized  gang  engaged  in  highway  robbery 


34      The  Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

on  an  enormous  scale.  The  armies  of  the 
AlHes  are  in  the  strictest  sense  of  that  term 
"  officers  of  the  peace."  They  are  "  fighting 
for  peace."  They  might  well  bear  upon  their 
banners  the  inscription,  "  Blessed  are  the 
peacemakers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the 
children  of  God." 

A  friend  has  called  my  attention  to  the  fact 
that  over  thirty-six  years  ago  Phillips  Brooks 
preached  a  sermon  on  the  curse  of  Meroz,  to 
be  found  in  the  Book  of  Judges, 

**  Curse  ye  Meroz,  said  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
Curse  ye  bitterly  the  inhabitants  thereof; 
Because  they  come  not  to  the  help  of  the 

Lord, 
To    the    help    of    the    Lord    against    the 

mighty." 

From  that  sermon  I  reprint  this  extract: 

Meroz  is  gone.  No  record  of  it  except  this  verse 
remains.  The  most  ingenious  and  indefatigable  ex- 
plorer cannot  even  guess  where  it  once  stood.  But 
the  curse  remains;  the  violent  outburst  of  the  con- 
tempt and  anger  which  men  feel  who  have  fought 
and  suffered  and  agonized,  and  then  see  other  men 
who  have  the  same  interest  in  the  result  which  they 
have,  coming  out  cool  and  unwounded  from  their 
safe  hiding-places  to  take  a  part  of  the  victory  which 
they  have  done  nothing  to  secure.  .  .  .  The  sin  for 
which  Meroz  is  cursed  is  pure  inaction.     We  hear 


The  Peacemakers  35 

so  much  about  the  danger  of  wrong  thinking  and 
the  danger  of  wrongdoing.  There  is  the  other 
danger,  of  not  doing  right  and  not  thinking  right, 
of  not  doing  and  not  thinking  at  all.  It  is  hard 
for  many  people  to  feel  that  there  is  danger  and  harm 
in  that,  the  worst  of  harm  and  danger.  And  the 
trouble  comes,  I  think,  from  the  low  condition  of 
spiritual  vitality,  from  the  lack  of  emphasis  and 
vigor  in  the  whole  conception  of  a  man's  own  life. 

Thank  God  that  America  Is  saved  from  the 
sin  of  Meroz.  Thank  God  that  you  and 
your  son  were  never  even  tempted  In  this 
hour  of  trial  to  the  sin  of  indifference  and  in- 
action. 

^  That  In  this  hour  of  world  peril  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  Christ  are  definitely  called  to 
service  by  the  explicit  and  unambiguous  com- 
mission of  their  Master,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
show  you  in  my  next  letter. 


FOURTH  LETTER 

THE  OLD  GOSPEL 

You  told  me  once  that  your  minister  said 
sometime  before  America  entered  the  war  — 
or  was  it  some  other  minister  in  your  Church? 
I  am  not  sure  —  that  after  serious  reflec- 
tion he  had  determined  that  In  his  preach- 
ing he  would  make  no  reference  to  the  war; 
he  would  confine  himself  to  the  Old  Gospel. 
A  Christian  friend  of  mine  not  long  since 
said  to  me  that  he  thought  this  war  was  just 
and  necessary,  and  he  was  glad  that  America 
had  entered  into  it;  but  that  he  could  not  rec- 
oncile war  with  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  thought  that  we  must  be  content  to  lay 
Christianity,  as  Christianity,  aside  until  the 
war  is  over.  Others  in  defending  the  action 
of  Christ's  followers  in  entering  the  war, 
have  said  that  Christ  in  his  teaching  presents 
an  ideal  which  cannot  now  be  put  in  practice; 
he  gives  us  not  a  chart  to  guide  us  in  our 
voyage,  but  a  picture  of  the  land  to  which 
we  are  voyaging.  Others  have  contended 
that  this  war,  fought  at  such  cost  of  life,  more 
than  eighteen  centuries  after  Christ's  birth, 
36 


The  Old  Gospel  37 

proves  that  Christianity  Is  a  failure;  and  still 
others  that  Christianity  cannot  be  a  failure 
because  it  has  not  yet  been  tried.  In  this 
letter  I  desire  to  explain  to  you  the  ground  of 
my  faith  that  Jesus  Christ  calls  his  followers 
to  the  colors  and  that  their  response  to  the 
call  constitutes  a  triumph  for  Christianity 
such  as  the  world  has  never  before  known. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  called  themselves  a 
peculiar  people.  One  of  their  peculiarities 
was  that  they  looked  forward,  not  backward, 
for  their  Golden  Age.  They  believed  that  a 
time  was  coming  when  poverty  would  be 
abolished,  when  property  would  be  so  equally 
distributed  that  every  man  could  sit  under  his 
own  vine  and  fig  tree,  when  education  would 
be  universal  so  that  no  man  would  need  to 
teach  his  neighbor,  when  despotism  would 
cease  because  the  laws  of  God  would  be  ac- 
cepted by  mankind  and  just  law  would  need 
no  other  enforcement  than  the  sanctions  of 
religion,  when  wars  would  end  and  the  imple- 
ments of  war  would  be  converted  Into  instru- 
ments of  Industry,  when  family  dissensions 
would  cease  and  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
would  be  turned  to  the  children  and  the  hearts 
of  the  children  would  be  turned  to  the  fathers. 

The  theme  of  Jesus'  ministry  was  this  king- 
dom of  God.     In  his  first  published  sermon, 


38       The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

delivered  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth,  he 
read  one  of  the  ancient  prophecies  of  this 
Golden  Age,  and  told  the  congregation  he 
had  come  to  fulfill  it.  At  the  end  of  his  life, 
in  the  trial  before  Caiaphas,  he  was  put  upon 
the  stand;  in  violation  of  the  Jewish  law  the 
oath  was  administered  to  him;  and  under  the 
solemn  sanction  of  that  oath  he  reaffirmed 
his  mission,  and  in  a  different  form  repeated 
that  affirmation  in  the  subsequent  trial  before 
Pilate. 

In  the  fulfillment  of  that  mission  Jesus 
never  set  aside  the  social  teachings  of  the 
prophets  or  substituted  for  their  glad  tidings 
of  a  Golden  Age  any  other.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  emphasized  their  social  teachings. 
They  had  denounced  injustice  and  inhuman- 
ity and  repeatedly  declared  that  no  forms  or 
ceremonies  could  take  the  place  of  doing  justly 
and  loving  mercy.  Jesus  denounced  injustice 
and  inhumanity  with  even  greater  vigor,  and 
reaffirmed  the  truth  that  righteousness  and 
mercy  are  greater  than  temple  services.  And 
he  taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  "  Thy  kingdom 
come;  Thy  will  be  done;  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven." 

But  in  emphasizing  the  teachings  of  the 
prophets  he  cleared  away  misapprehensions 
which  had  grown  up  about  those  teachings 
and  obscured  their  real  meaning. 


The  Old  Gospel  39 

Early  In  his  ministry  he  called  twelve 
friends  about  him  to  be  his  companions,  to 
learn  his  principles,  Imbibe  his  spirit,  and 
proclaim  to  others  the  glad  tidings  which  they 
had  received  from  him.  On  the  occasion 
of  their  consecration  to  this  ministry,  he 
preached  what  is  popularly  known  as  The 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  though  never  so 
entitled  In  the  New  Testament.  In  this  ser- 
mon he  described  certain  essential  principles 
of  the  life  which  he  had  come  to  inspire  in 
humanity.  He  told  the  people  that  happi- 
ness cannot  be  conferred,  for  the  secret  of 
happiness  is  character;  that  there  can  be  no 
kingdom  of  God  in  society  unless  there  is  a 
kingdom  of  God  In  the  Individual  life;  and 
that  obedience  in  action  to  the  divine  law  Is 
not  enough,  that  their  righteousness  must 
exceed  that  of  the  Pharisees  who  were 
scrupulous  observers  of  the  law;  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  requires  unity  of  the  human 
spirit  with  the  divine  spirit;  and  that  the  life 
which  unites  the  Father  with  his  children  is 
freely  given  by  the  Father  to  his  children  If 
they  will  seek  It  from  him.  Thus  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  Interprets  the  declaration  of 
the  psalmist :  *'  I  delight  to  do  thy  will,  O 
my  God;  yea,  thy  law  Is  within  my  heart." 
Jesus  did  not  substitute  an  Individual  gospel 
for  a  social  gospel,  but  he  taught  that  there 


40      The   Twentieth   Century   Crusade 

could  be  no  social  gospel  without  an  individual 
gospel.  A  brave  army  cannot  be  composed 
of  cowardly  soldiers,  nor  a  learned  school  of 
dunces,  nor  can  a  loving  and  loyal  family  of 
the  heavenly  Father  be  composed  of  disloyal 
anxi  quarreling  children. 

The  Jews  believed  that  this  kingdom  would 
be  given  to  them  as  the  favored  people  of 
Jehovah.  Jesus  told  his  disciples  that  it 
would  not  be  given  by  God  to  man,  but  must 
be  wrought  by  men  in  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to 
God.  In  one  of  his  sermons,  several  times 
repeated  in  different  forms,  he  compared  God 
to  an  absentee  landlord  and  the  world  to  an 
estate  which  the  landlord  has  left  for  his  serv- 
ants to  administer.  The  Jews  believed  that 
the  kingdom  would  suddenly  and  by  a 
miraculous  display  of  divine  power  be  be- 
stowed. Jesus  in  a  series  of  parables  told 
his  disciples  that  the  kingdom  of  God  was 
like  a  seed  growing  secretly,  no  one  knows 
how;  that  its  growth  was  dependent  upon  the 
soil  in  which  it  was  planted  —  that  it  would 
thrive  in  some  communities  better  than  in 
others  and  in  some  communities  not  at  all; 
that  evil  would  grow  as  well  as  good,  and  that 
they  must  never  be  discouraged  because  they 
saw  the  growth  of  evil;  that  the  kingdom 
would  grow  only  by  agitation  against  hos- 
tility, inertia,  and  indifference  —  like  a  little 


The  Old  Gospel  41 

yeast  In  a  great  lump  of  dough;  that  it  would 
be  won  by  his  disciples  at  a  great  cost,  like  a 
treasure  hidden  In  a  field  or  a  pearl  found  In 
the  market-place,  to  acquire  which  the  pur- 
chaser has  to  sell  all  that  he  has;  and  again 
and  again  he  told  his  disciples  that  to  acquire 
this  kingdom  they  must  be  ready  to  give  up 
houses,  lands,  reputation,  peace,  life  Itself. 

The  contrast  between  the  kingdom  of  God 
and  the  kingdom  of  this  world  he  made  very 
clear  In  a  passage  which  furnishes,  I  think, 
both  the  briefest  and  the  most  lucid  definition 
of  the  difference  between  Christianity  and 
paganism  to  be  found  anywhere  In  literature. 
It  is  as  follows : 

Ye  know  that  the  rulers  of  the  Gentiles  lord  it 
over  them,  and  their  great  ones  exercise  authority 
over  them.  Not  so  shall  it  be  among  you :  but  who- 
soever would  become  great  among  you  shall  be  your 
minister;  and  whosoever  would  be  first  among  you 
shall  be  your  servant:  even  as  the  Son  of  man  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to 
give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many. 

Whether  a  community  Is  pagan  or  Chris- 
tian does  not  depend  upon  Its  theological 
creed,  Its  church  organizations,  Its  forms  of 
worship,  or  even  the  name  it  gives  to  its  God. 
It  does  not  depend  upon  the  question  whether 
the  people  correctly  define  the  relation  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  God  on  the  one  hand 


42      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

and  humanity  on  the  other;  whether  they 
worship  In  a  temple,  In  a  meeting-house,  or  In 
the  woods;  whether  they  use  an  elaborate 
ritual  or  none  at  all;  whether  they  call  the  ob- 
ject of  their  worship  Odin,  or  Buddha,  or  Al- 
lah, or  Jehovah.  It  depends  on  the  question 
whether  their  idea  of  God  is  an  almighty 
power  which  they  fear,  or  an  inexorable  law 
to  which  they  reluctantly  submit,  or  a  serene 
indifference  to  the  pains  and  pleasures  of  life 
which  they  admire,  or  an  Infinite  love  which 
lives  for  and  suffers  with  the  loved  one.  For 
he  who  worships  the  Deity  because  he  is  the 
All  Mighty  worships  Odin;  he  who  worships 
a  Deity  who  looks  upon  the  struggles  and  the 
sorrows  of  his  children  with  a  serene  indiffer- 
ence worships  Buddha;  he  who  worships  a 
Lawgiver,  who  only  wishes  from  his  obedient 
subjects  their  submission  to  his  rule  worships 
Allah;  only  he  who  believes  that  the  All- 
Father  lives  with  his  children,  bears  with 
them  in  their  struggles  and  their  sorrows,  and 
seeks  to  save  them  from  their  sins,  worships 
the  God  of  the  Bible,  the  God  of  Isaiah  and 
of  John.  Whether  a  community  is  Christian 
or  not  depends  on  whether  their  religion  ter- 
rifies or  rules  or  meditates  or  serves.  Any 
community  in  which  the  weak  serve  the 
strong,  the  poor  serve  the  rich,  the  Ignorant 
serve  the  wise,  the  many  serve  the  few,  is  m 


The  Old  Gospel  43 

so  far  a  pagan  community.  Any  community 
in  which  the  strong  serve  the  weak,  the  wise 
serve  the  ignorant,  the  rich  serve  the  poor, 
the  few  serve  the  many  is  in  so  far  a  Christian 
community. 

What  Jesus  meant  by  service  he  made 
clear  by  his  teaching.  He  illustrated  it  by 
his  story  of  the  heretical  Samaritan  going  to 
the  succor  of  the  wounded  traveler  in  con- 
trast with  a  priest  and  a  Levite  hurrying  to 
the  church  service;  by  his  story  of  the  rich 
man  whom  he  sent  to  hell,  not  for  any  wrong 
inflicted  upon  Lazarus,  but  for  saying  to  him- 
self, "  The  sufferings  of  the  beggar  at  the 
door  do  not  concern  me,"  and  leaving  the 
beggar  unrelieved;  by  his  picture  of  the  Last 
Judgment  in  which  those  were  welcomed  to 
the  mansion  of  their  heavenly  Father  who 
had  fed  the  hungry,  given  drink  to  the  thirsty, 
clothed  the  stranger,  and  visited  the  sick. 
The  fact  that  they  did  not  know  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah  and  that  they  were  render- 
ing service  to  him  did  not  affect  the  divine 
judgment. 

Still  more  clearly  Jesus  illustrated  by  his 
own  life  what  he  meant  by  service.  He  gave 
himself  unreservedly  to  making  the  world  he 
lived  in  a  better  and  a  happier  world.^  Were 
men  hungry  he  fed  them,  were  they  ignorant 
he  taught  them,  were  they  in  sorrow  he  com- 


44      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

forted  them,  were  they  in  despair  he  brought 
hope  to  them,  were  they  the  victims  of  wrong- 
doing he  denounced  their  oppressors,  and  in 
two  instances  at  the  hazard  of  his  life  he 
came  to  the  rescue  of  the  defenseless. 

How  can  any  man  to-day  preach  the  Old 
Gospel  and  ignore  the  present  war? 

The  Master  has  made  his  mission  very 
clear.  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me," 
he  said,  "  because  he  anointed  me  to  preach 
good  tidings  to  the  poor:  he  hath  sent  me  to 
proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  recover- 
ing of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them 
that  are  bruised."  Dying,  he  transmitted  to 
his  disciples  this  mission.  "As  the  Father 
hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you,"  were  al- 
most his  last  words  to  them. 

A  band  of  robbers  has  invaded  Belgium 
and  France  and  stolen  coal  and  iron  from 
the  mines,  crops  from  the  fields,  money  from 
the  banks,  pictures,  statuary,  and  jewels  from 
the  homes,  and  what  it  could  not  steal  It  has 
wantonly  destroyed.  We  have  power  to 
drive  the  robbers  off.  How  can  we  preach 
glad  tidings  to  the  poor  if  we  play  the  part  of 
Dives  and  the  woes  of  Lazarus  do  not  con- 
cern us?  This  band  of  robbers  has  enslaved 
men  and  women  by  the  thousand  and  set  them 
to  work  raising  food  to  feed  their  enemies 
and  making  munitions  to  enable  their  enemies 


The  Old  Gospel  45 

to  continue  the  work  of  devastation.  How 
can  we  preach  deHverance  to  these  captives 
and  remain  at  home  complacent  in  our  own 
prosperity?  This  band  has  used  its  scientific 
knowledge  in  the  manufacture  of  poisonous 
gases  to  destroy  the  eyes  of  thousands  of  its 
fellow-men.  How  can  we  allow  that  process 
to  go  on  and  pretend  to  fulfill  our  divine  mis- 
sion to  give  sight  to  the  blind?  The  imperial 
leader  of  this  band  has  avowed  his  purpose  to 
establish  a  Roman  Empire  in  Europe,  and  the 
intellectual  leaders  of  this  band  have  poisoned 
the  minds  of  the  people  with  the  doctrine  that 
"  Might  makes  Right,"  that  the  strong  owe 
no  duty  to  the  weak  —  the  sooner  they  die, 
the  better  —  and  some  of  them  have  declared 
that  Odin,  the  god  of  force,  is  greater  than 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  love.  How  can  we  pre- 
tend to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  sorely 
bruised  by  these  oppressors  if  we  are  deaf  to 
the  cries  of  the  Armenians,  the  Serbians,  the 
Poles,  and  the  Belgians?  The  minister  who 
Is  indifferent  to  this  war  is  either  ignorant  of 
or  indifferent  to  the  call  of  his  Master.  He 
does  not  preach  the  Old  Gospel  —  the  Gospel 
which  Paul  summed  up  in  the  sentence,  "  God 
was  In  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  him- 
self " —  the  world,  not  some  men  from  the 
world.  He  came  not  to  rescue  a  few  favored 
ones  from  a  sinking  ship,  not  to  graduate 


46      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

a  few  choice  scholars  from  a  mass  left  in  igno- 
rance, not  to  save  a  few  saints  from  a  lost 
world :  but  to  show  the  mariners  how  to  bring 
the  ship  and  all  its  passengers  safe  into  the 
harbor,  the  teachers  how  to  instruct  all  the 
pupils  in  the  laws  of  God,  and  to  reconcile 
the  world  to  God  by  making  it  a  world  in- 
spired by  God  with  the  spirit  of  love,  service, 
and  sacrifice. 

I  do  not  forget  that  there  are  those  who 
honestly  think  that  Jesus  Christ  forbade  all 
use  of  physical  force  in  resisting  the  powers 
of  evil.  Tolstoi,  from  the  command  "  Judge 
not,"  concludes  that  all  courts  should  be  abol- 
ished; from  "  Resist  not  evil,"  that  all  police 
should  be  abolished;  from  "  Lay  not  up  for 
yourselves  treasures  on  earth,"  that  all  saving 
and  all  thrift  is  wrong;  from  "  Give  to  him 
that  asketh  of  thee,"  that  begging  ought  to  be 
encouraged.  But  he  is  the  only  consistent 
literalist  I  have  ever  met  with  either  in  litera- 
ture or  in  life. 

The  early  disciples  did  not  so  understand 
their  Master.  Matthew  reports  him  as  say- 
ing "  Think  not  that  I  came  to  send  peace  on 
the  earth:  I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a 
sword."  Paul  declares  that  the  magistrate 
"  beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain:  for  he  is  a 
minister  of  God,  an  avenger  for  wrath  to  him 
that  doeth  evil."     The  author  of  the  Epistle 


The  Old  Gospel  47 

to  the  Hebrews  glories  In  the  faith  of  those 
who  by  their  faith  "  from  weakness  were 
made  strong,  waxed  mighty  in  war,  turned  to 
flight  armies  of  aliens  ";  John  sees  his  Mas- 
ter as  a  knight  errant  on  a  white  horse  going 
forth  "  conquering  and  to  conquer  ";  and  the 
historians  tell  us  that  one  reason  why  Con- 
stantine  adopted  Christianity  as  the  religion 
of  Rome  was  because  he  found  that  the  Chris- 
tians made  better  soldiers  than  the  pagans. 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  Interpretation  of 
Christ's  teaching  is  far  more  rational  than 
Tolstoi's.  "  In  our  own  person  and  fortune 
we  should  be  ready  to  accept  and  pardon  all; 
it  is  our  cheek  we  are  to  turn,  our  coat  that 
we  are  to  give  away  to  the  man  who  has  taken 
our  cloak.  But  when  another's  face  is  buf- 
feted, perhaps  a  little  of  the  Hon  will  be- 
come us  best.  That  we  are  to  suffer  others 
to  be  injured  and  stand  by,  is  not  conceivable 
and  surely  not  desirable." 

This  interpretation  tallies  with  the  spirit 
of  Christ's  teaching.  Can  anyone  believe 
that  if  the  Good  Samaritan  had  appeared 
upon  the  scene  when  the  robbers  were  engaged 
in  beating  the  defenseless  traveler  and  had 
passed  by  with  the  priest  and  Levite  the  world 
would  by  universal  consent  have  given  him 
the  title  of  Good  Samaritan?  Can  anyone 
believe  that  if  the  roughs  and  toughs  of  the 


48      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

city  had  beaten  Lazarus  at  the  rich  man's 
door  and  the  rich  man,  with  servants  able  to 
furnish  protection,  had  not  Interfered,  Christ 
would  have  sent  the  rich  man  to  Abraham's 
bosom?  Can  anyone  believe  that  He  who 
pronounced  accursed  of  God,  doomed  to  be 
destroyed  by  the  fire  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels,  those  who  had  simply  neg- 
lected the  poor,  the  sick  and  the  Imprisoned, 
would  welcome  to  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
them  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  those 
who  had  the  power  to  give  succor  and  had 
stood  by  idle  and  indifferent  while  a  brutal 
gang  was  impoverishing,  enslaving,  and  mur- 
dering hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  peace- 
able and  unoffending  fellow-men? 

The  example  of  Christ  Interprets  his  teach- 
ing and  it  gives  no  warrant  to  the  pacifism 
of  Tolstoi.  At  the  beginning  of  Christ's  life, 
he  drove  from  the  Temple  a  corrupt  ring  of 
thieves,  pouring  out  the  changers'  money  and 
overthrowing  their  tables.  At  the  end  of  his 
life  he  put  himself  between  the  Temple  police 
and  his  half  awakened  and  defenseless  disci- 
ples, stood  guard  while  the  police  fell  back- 
ward to  the  ground  —  were  floored  as  we 
should  say —  and  not  till  his  disciples,  taking 
his  hint,  "  let  them  go  their  way,"  had  es- 
caped, did  he  deliver  himself  up  to  his 
enemies.     He  saved  others,  himself  he  would 


The  Old  Gospel  49 

not  save.  He  forbade  Peter's  futile  resist- 
ance to  the  guard  because  it  was  futile  and 
because  he  would  not  live  under  the  protection 
of  a  government  and  at  the  same  time  resist 
the  officers  appointed  to  execute  its  laws.  He 
was  no  I.  W.  W.  Peter  had  neither  the 
power  nor  the  authority  to  protect  his  Master. 
But  Pilate  had  both  the  power  and  the  au- 
thority and  because  he  was  a  pacifist  and  did 
not  use  his  power,  he  has  always  and  justly 
been  accounted  a  partner  in  the  crime  of 
Calaphas  and  Judas.  For  power  always 
carries  with  it  responsibility. 

I  cannot  understand  those  who  think  that 
Christianity  has  failed.  These  strangely 
blind  skeptics  can  see  the  pitiless  German 
horde  raping,  robbing,  murdering,  but  they 
cannot  see  the  followers  of  Christ  carrying, 
at  the  cost  of  their  own  lives,  his  message  of 
succor  to  the  poor,  the  captives,  the  blinded, 
and  those  that  are  bruised  by  oppression. 
They  can  see  the  priests  confessing  their 
travesty  of  faith  In  the  sentence,  ''  He  trusted 
on  God;  let  him  deliver  him  now,  if  he  deslr- 
eth  him  ";  but  they  cannot  see  the  crucified 
Christ  conquering  the  world  by  self-sacrifice. 
'""^  I  think  Christianity  has  never  been  so 
triumphant  as  It  Is  to-day.  But  my  grounds  1/ 
for  this  faith  I  must  leave  to  be  stated  in  my 
next  letter. 


FIFTH  LETTER 

"  WE    GLORY   IN   TRIBULATIONS  '' 

You  ask  me  why  God  permits  war.  If  he 
Is  In  truth  a  heavenly  father,  why  does  he 
allow  his  children  to  fight  and  kill  each  other? 
Why  does  he  not  Interfere  to  prevent  this  un- 
told suffering? 

The  question  why  a  God  of  love  permits 
sin  and  suffering  In  the  world,  Is  one  which 
many  have  asked  of  others  and  many  more 
probably  of  themselves,  In  all  ages  of  the 
world.  It  has  caused  many  honest  students 
of  life  to  abandon  their  faith  in  the  goodness 
of  God  as  unreasonable,  or  at  least  to  give  up 
all  attempt  to  frame  any  conception  of  God 
or  to  enter  Into  any  personal  relations  with 
him.  It  is  this  question  which  Job's  friends 
put  to  him  and  he  could  not  answer;  all  he 
could  say  was  that  his  suffering  was  not  a 
punishment  for  his  sins  for  he  had  not  com- 
mitted sins  which  would  deserve  such  a  pun- 
ishment. It  Is  Implied  in  the  experiences  of 
the  Old  Testament  prophets  and  poets  In 
such  phrases  as  "  Be  not  thou  far  off,  O 
50 


''  We  Glory  in   Tribulations  "        5 1 

Jehovah :  O  thou  my  succor,  haste  thee  to  help 
me."  "How  long,  O  Jehovah?  wilt  thou 
forget  me  forever?  "  "  How  long  wilt  thou 
hide  thy  face  from  me?"  "Why  standest 
thou  afar  off,  O  Jehovah?  Why  hidest  thou 
thyself  in  times  of  trouble?  "  "  O  Jehovah 
God  of  Hosts,  how  long  wilt  thou  be  angry 
against  the  prayer  of  thy  people  ?  Thou  hast 
fed  them  with  the  bread  of  tears,  And  given 
them  tears  to  drink  in  large  measure." 
"  How  long  shall  the  wicked  triumph?  " 

To  this  question  I  can  give  no  answer.  I 
have  no  faith  in  what  the  theologians  call 
theodicy  —  the  attempt  by  scholars  to  justify 
the  ways  of  God  to  man.  This  world  is  but 
a  grain  of  sand  in  an  infinite  universe,  and 
you  and  I  but  midgets  on  this  grain  of  sand. 
To  suppose  that  we  can  comprehend  and  in- 
terpret the  plans  and  methods  of  the  Eternal 
appears  to  me  much  more  preposterous  than 
to  suppose  that  a  child  two  years  old  can  com- 
prehend and  interpret  the  plans  and  methods 
of  a  Lincoln,  a  Gladstone  or  a  Cavour.  I 
rest  content  with  the  answer  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  perplexity  of  his  disciples:  "  What  I 
do  thou  knowest  not  now;  but  thou  shalt  un- 
derstand hereafter." 

But  I  can  see  that  God  is  doing  something 
for  us  that  is  much  better  than  stopping  the 
war;  he  is  inspiring  us  with  courage  to  win  it. 


52       The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

Happiness  is  not  the  end  of  life.  Happi- 
ness is  not  the  greatest  gift  love  has  to  be- 
stow. Happiness  is  not  the  gift  which  we 
chiefly  desire  either  for  ourselves  or  our  loved 
ones.  What  is  the  end  of  life?  It  is  diflfi- 
cult  to  find  any  one  word  which  will  express 
it.  Character,  wisdom,  righteousness,  educa- 
tion, human  development,  progress,  growth, 
greatness  of  heart  and  greatness  of  mind  are 
some  of  the  phrases  which  have  been  em- 
ployed. The  word  I  like  best  is  the  one 
which  is  most  frequent  in  the  New  Testament : 
Life. 

Life  Is  the  object  of  life  —  every  day  a 
larger  life  than  the  day  before.  This  is 
Christ's  word :  "  I  am  come  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  It  more 
abundantly."  *'  I  give  unto  them  eternal 
life."  That  he  might  bring  this  gift  of  life 
to  men,  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world: 
"  The  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation 
hath  appeared  to  all  men  .  .  .  teaching  us 
that  we  should  live.'^  This  is  the  object  of 
the  Bible.  Scripture  is  given  "  that  the  man 
of  God  may  be  perfect."  This  is  the  object 
of  the  Church!  He  gave  apostles,  prophets, 
evangelists,  pastors  and  teachers,  that  we 
might  come  "  unto  a  full-grown  man,  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of 
Christ."     Buddhism  regards  life  as  an  evil: 


''  We  Glory  in   Tribulations  ^^        53 

heaven  is  Nirvana,  escape  from  life,  uncon- 
scious existence.  Christianity  regards  life  as 
the  greatest  gift  which  a  God  of  love  can  be- 
stow upon  his  children.  Hell  is  Eternal 
Death;  Heaven  is  Eternal  Life. 

Is  not  life  what  we  all  want  for  ourselves 
and  for  our  children?  Coningsby  Dawson 
writes  home  from  the  ship  that  is  carrying 
him  to  France :  "  In  seventeen  days  the  boys 
will  also  have  left  you  —  so  this  will  arrive 
when  you're  horribly  lonely.  I  am  so  sorry 
for  you  dear  people  —  but  I'd  be  sorrier  for 
you  if  we  were  all  with  you.  If  I  were  a 
father  or  mother  I'd  rather  have  my  sons 
dead  than  see  them  failing  when  the  supreme 
sacrifice  was  called  for." 

Does  not  that  appeal  to  all  of  us?  Would 
you  not  rather  have  the  sacred  memory  of  a 
brave  son  than  the  shameful  presence  of  a 
cowardly  one?  Would  you  not  rather  see 
him  suffering  for  his  heroism  than  happy  in 
his  flight  from  peril?  Nay!  Would  not  his 
happiness  in  his  shame  add  to  your  sorrow? 

In  June,  19 17,  Hermann  Hagedorn  read 
before  the  Harvard  Chapter  of  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  an  "  Ode  of  Dedication,"  from  which 
I  take  these  two  verses : 

Who  said,  " //  is  a  booth  where  doves  are  sold"? 
Who  said,  "  It  is  a  money-changers'  cave  "  f 


54      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

Silence  to  such  forever,  and  behold! 

It  is  a  vast  cathedral,  and  its  nave 
And  dim-lit  transept  and  broad  aisles  are  filled 

With  a  great  nation's  millions,  on  their  knees 
With  new  devotion  and  high  fervor  thrilled 

Offering  silver  and  heart's-ease 
And  love  and  life  and  all  sweet,  temporal  things, 

Still  to  keep  bright 

The  steady  light 
That  stifles  in  the  wake  of  kings! 

A  market-place!  they  cried? 

A  lotus-land!  They  lied! 
It  is  a  great  cathedral,  not  with  hands 
Upraised,  but  by  the  spirit's  mute  commands 
Uplifted  by  the  spirit,  wall  and  spire. 
To  house  a  nation's  purified  desire! 
A  church!     Where  in  hushed  fervor  stand 

The  children  of  contending  races, 
Forgetting  feud  and  fatherland  — 

A  hundred  million  lifted  faces. 

Is  It  not  worth  all  that  It  costs  us  to  have 
America  changed  from  a  "  money-changers' 
cave  "  to  a  "  great  cathedral  "?  Have  you 
not  reason  to  exult  that  your  boy  has  helped 
directly  and  you  and  your  husband  scarcely 
less  directly  by  the  life  you  have  nurtured  In 
him,  to  bring  about  this  rehabilitation  of  the 
nation? 

For  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Americans 


**  JVe  Glory  in   Tribulations"        55 

were  growing  soft,  easy,  adipose.  Our  pros- 
perity was  poisoning  us.  We  were  fast  as- 
suming the  fatal  falsehood  that  happiness  is 
the  end  of  life.  Our  current  phrases,  *'  A 
happy  New  Year,"  "  Many  happy  returns  of 
the  day,  "  A  long  and  happy  life  to  you," 
were  conventional,  but  they  expressed  what 
was  becoming  a  dominant  desire  for  ourselves 
and  for  our  friends.  "  Safety  first "  gen- 
erally meant  comfort  first.  Much  of  the  in- 
dustrial unrest  was  the  struggle  of  pigs  at  the 
trough  over  the  division  of  the  swill.  The 
ministers  were  hard  put  to  it  to  reconcile  the 
inequalities  and  unhappinesses  of  life  with 
faith  in  a  just  and  benevolent  God.  Glory 
in  tribulation  was  becoming  a  lost  art. 

The  war  is  teaching  us  that  happiness  is  not 
the  end  of  life;  that  the  joy  of  self-sacrifice 
is  greater  than  the  joy  of  self-indulgence. 
This  we  are  learning  as  such  a  lesson  only 
can  be  learned,  not  from  sermons  or  text 
books,  but  in  the  school  of  experience. 
Thousands  of  men  and  women  have  crossed 
the  Atlantic  and  are  in  the  trenches,  the  air- 
planes, the  ambulances,  the  hospitals,  laying 
down  their  lives  in  self-denying  services  for 
their  fellow-men,  and  thousands  more  are  pre- 
paring to  follow  them.  Doubtless  the  spirit 
of  adventure  mingles  with  and  quickens  the 


56      The  Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  but  also  the  spirit  of 
self-sacrifice  mingles  with  and  ennobles  the 
spirit  of  adventure. 

A  nation  is  made  Christian,  not  by  main- 
taining an  established  church,  nor  by  building 
cathedrals,  nor  by  writing  a  confession  of  its 
faith  Into  Its  constitution.  It  is  made  Chris- 
tian by  the  spirit  of  love,  service,  and  sacrifice. 
When  did  a  nation  ever  show  so  much  of  this 
spirit  of  love,  service  and  sacrifice  as  the 
American  Nation  does  to-day?  The  Govern- 
ment has  called  upon  the  people  for  thousands 
of  millions  of  dollars  to  carry  on  the  war  for 
the  freedom  of  the  world,  and  the  people 
have  offered  more  than  they  were  asked  to 
contribute.  The  Red  Cross  has  asked  for 
millions  to  minister  to  the  wounded  on  the 
fields,  the  sick  and  suffering  In  the  hospitals, 
and  the  Impoverished  civilians  In  the  devas- 
tated countries,  and  the  people  have  offered 
more  than  they  were  asked  to  give.  The  Y. 
M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  have  asked 
millions  to  aid  them  in  social  and  spiritual 
services,  and  the  people  have  given  them  more 
than  was  called  for.  They  are  denying  them- 
selves food  they  prefer  that  they  may  send 
food  to  others  who  are  In  greater  need.  The 
young  men  and  women  are  offering  them- 
selves, and  their  fathers  and  mothers  are  of- 
fering their  sons  and  their  daughters,  in  life- 


**We  Glory  in   Tribulations''        57 

giving  service  —  laying  down  tlieir  lives  for 
peoples  across  the  sea  whom  most  of  us  have 
never  seen,  whose  very  language  most  of  us 
cannot  understand.  The  cross,  which  a  few 
years  ago  was  seen  only  on  the  breasts  of  a 
few  ecclesiastics  or  on  the  spires  of  some  of 
our  churches.  Is  now  accepted  as  a  symbol  of 
their  faith  by  twenty-three  million  members 
of  the  Red  Cross  who  have  the  right  to  this 
symbol,  and  most  of  whom  are  wearing  it  on 
their  persons  or  displaying  It  in  their  win- 
dows. Every  man  who  wears  this  cross 
wears  the  symbol  of  a  universal  priesthood; 
every  home  adorned  by  it  carries  the  syjnbol 
of  Christ's  Universal  Church.  The  spirit  of 
love,  service,  and  sacrifice  has  burst  through 
all  barriers  of  creed  and  church,  and  is  found 
to-day  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  Christians  and  Jews,  believers 
and  agnostics. 

And  this  is  more  than  self-sacrifice;  it  is 
sacrificial  service.  We  are  learning  by  ex- 
perience what  it  is  to  suffer  for  the  sins  of 
the  world,  what  it  is  for  the  innocent  to  suffer 
with  and  for  the  guilty,  and  how  suffering  re- 
deems, saves,  delivers.  When  a  nation  which 
has  been  poisoned  by  a  century  of  pernicious 
teaching  makes  war  upon  civilization,  civiliza- 
tion is  doomed  unless  there  are  men  and 
women  willing  to  give  up  all  they  hold  dear  — 


58      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

property,  home,  husband,  wife,  children,  life 
Itself  —  In  brave  battle  against  sins  which 
they  have  never  committed,  for  which  they  are 
not  responsible,  which  they  have  done  nothing 
to  promote.  Europe  could  not  have  been 
saved  from  a  revival  of  Roman  despotism, 
pagan  alike  in  its  philosophy  and  its  spirit,  if 
there  had  not  been  in  Belgium,  in  France,  In 
Great  Britain,  in  Italy,  in  Russia,  and  in 
America  men  who  were  willing  to  suffer  and 
to  die  for  their  faith  in  liberty.  It  is  be- 
cause there  were  no  such  sacrificial  lovers  of 
liberty  in  Germany  that  Germany  has  been 
given  over  to  the  spirit  of  autocracy.  It  is 
because  there  were  such  sacrificial  lovers  of 
liberty  in  Russia  that  Russia  has  been  set  free 
from  the  old  autocracy. 

Thus  we  are  learning  the  meaning  of  Chris- 
tianity, both  as  a  theology  and  as  a  spirit. 

As  a  theology,  Christianity  is  the  doctrine 
that  there  is  a  real  battle  in  the  universe  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  the  extent  and  full  mean- 
ing of  which  we  need  not  and  cannot  know, 
but  In  which  we  must  bear  a  part  whether  we 
will  or  not ;  and  that  there  is  One  greater  than 
we  think,  our  Companion  in  the  great  cam- 
paign, who  voluntarily  shares  with  us  in  all 
the  pains  and  perils  of  the  battlefield.  As  a 
spirit,  Christianity  is  reverence  for  our  Great 
Companion,  not  because  he  is  the  Almighty, 


''  We  Glory  in  Tribulations  ''        59 

or  the  All-wise,  but  because  he  is  our  Leader 
in  the  sacrificial  service. 

We  cannot  revere  in  God  what  we  despise 
in  our  fellow-men,  and  in  our  fellow-men  we 
despise  the  power  and  the  wisdom  which  are 
used  in  the  service  of  self.  The  greater  the 
power  and  wisdom,  the  greater  is  our  con- 
tempt for  its  mean  and  selfish  possessor. 
We  cannot  refuse  our  reverence  to  the  auto- 
cratic emperor  of  Germany  and  give  it  to 
God  if  we  think  of  him  as  an  Almighty  King 
governing  only  by  his  power,  or  if  we  think  of 
Him  as  without  emotions  and  living  in  eter- 
nal serenity  looking  upon  the  struggles  of 
mankind  with  placid  indifference;  and  we  can- 
not give  our  reverence  to  the  exiled  king  of 
Belgium  laying  down  his  life  for  his  country 
and  refuse  our  reverence  to  the  Galilean  who 
has  laid  down  his  life  for  the  whole  world, 
nor  can  we  give  our  reverence  to  the  fathers 
and  mothers  who  have  given  their  sons  for 
the  salvation  of  a  foreign  people  and  refuse 
it  to  the  All-Father  who  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  for  it  his  only  begotten  Son. 

Little  children  are  sometimes  great  teach- 
ers because  they  naively  express  the  feeling 
which  they  have  not  learned  from  their  ill-in- 
structed elders  to  repress.  When  the  French 
children  knelt  in  the  streets  of  Paris  as  the 
American  troops  passed  through  that  city, 


6o      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

they  revered,  not  our  wealth,  nor  our  shrewd- 
ness, nor  our  power,  but  our  sacrificial  serv- 
ice; and  taught  us  what  in  our  kneeling  ought 
to  inspire  our  revering.  This  is  the  reason 
why  Christendom,  in  spite  of  much  semi- 
pagan  teaching  from  our  pulpits,  reverences, 
not  an  enthroned  Allah  in  the  heavens,  but  a 
thorn-crowned  Christ  upon  the  earth,  not  a 
Buddha  without  passions,  purposes  or  desires, 
but  a  human  God,  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
familiar  with  grief.  Christians  find  Him  on 
the  battlefield  —  a  leader  in  its  great  cam- 
paign, sharing  with  them  in  the  sacrificial 
service.  And  this  experience  is  giving  a  new 
and  deeper  meaning  to  the  declaration  of  the 
unknown  writer  of  the  book  of  Hebrews, 
''  Without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission  of  sin,"  and  a  broader  and  more 
universal  meaning  to  the  declaration  of  Paul, 
''  I  rejoice  in  my  sufferings  for  your  sake,  and 
fill  up  on  my  part  that  which  is  lacking  of  the 
afilictions  of  Christ." 


SIXTH  LETTER 

"the  republic  of  god" 

You  say  that  you  fear  you  have  not  put 
your  question  very  clearly,  that  It  is  not  very 
clear  in  your  own  mind.  I  think,  however, 
that  I  understand  it.  Let  me  state  it  in  my 
own  words. 

You  are  satisfied  that  this  is  a  just  war; 
that  France  had  a  right  and  duty  of  self-de- 
fense; that  Belgium  had  a  right  and  duty  to 
maintain  her  neutrality  on  which  France  had 
depended  for  protection;  that  England  had  a 
right  and  a  duty  to  come  to  the  defense  of 
Belgium  whose  neutrality  she  had  guaranteed. 
But  what  had  Italy  to  do  with  the  war? 
What  had  we  to  do  with  it?  How  is  it  our 
war?  Have  we  not  problems  enough  of  our 
own  without  taking  upon  ourselves  the  prob- 
lems of  other  lands?  Are  we  not  in  danger 
of  forgetting  the  beam  in  our  own  eye  in  our 
excitement  over  what  is  more  than  a  mote  in 
our  neighbor's  eye?  The  President  has  said 
that  the  object  of  this  war  is  to  make  the 
world  safe  for  democracy.  Are  we  so  sure 
that  democracy  is  the  best  form  of  govern- 
6i 


62       The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

ment  that  it  is  worth  all  that  this  war  is  cost- 
ing us  to  make  France  and  Belgium  safe  for 
it? 

Have  I  fairly  stated  your  perplexity? 

I  might  reply  by  saying  that  we  did  not  de- 
clare war  against  Germany  until  Germany 
had  made  war  against  us;  had  set  at  nought 
international  law  which  all  civilized  nations 
are  under  obligation  to  maintain;  had  inter- 
fered with  our  commerce  on  the  high  seas; 
had  murdered  our  citizens  traveling  peace- 
ably on  the  ocean;  and  had  assumed  the  right 
to  tell  us  how  often  and  on  what  pathway  we 
might  traverse  that  ocean.  But  while  these 
and  kindred  acts  were  the  occasion,  they  were 
not  the  cause  of  our  entering  upon  this  war. 
These  are  not  the  facts  which  have  set  on  fire 
the  indignation  of  the  American  people  and 
united  us  in  the  determination  to  conquer 
whatever  it  may  cost.  The  President  has 
rightly  defined  that  cause.  We  believe  that 
the  right  of  Nations  to  be  free  is  in  peril  and 
we  joined  with  them  in  the  defense  of  that 
right.  We  have  engaged  in  a  crusade  to 
make  this  world  a  home  in  which  God's  chil- 
dren can  live  in  peace  and  safety,  a  crusade 
far  more  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  and  will 
of  Christ  than  the  crusade  to  recover  from 
pagans  the  tomb  in  which  the  body  of  Christ 
was  buried. 


''  The  Republic  of  God ''  63 

Jesus  Christ  has  in  a  memorable  passage 
defined  for  his  followers  the  spirit  which 
ought  to  animate  the  social  order  of  the 
civilized  world,  which  will  animate  their  in- 
stitutions when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world 
have  become  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and 
of  his  Christ: 

Be  not  ye  called  Rabbi:  for  one  is  your  teacher, 
and  all  ye  are  brethren.  And  call  no  man  your 
father  on  the  earth:  for  one  is  your  Father,  even 
he  who  is  in  heaven.  Neither  be  ye  called  masters: 
for  one  is  your  master,  even  the  Christ.  But  he 
that  is  greatest  among  you  shall  be  your  servant. 
And  whosoever  shall  exalt  himself  shall  be  humbled ; 
and  whosoever  shall  humble  himself  shall  be  exalted. 

How  does  this  differ  from  the  motto  of  the 
French  Republic:  ^'Liberty,  Equality,  Fra- 
ternity "  ?  How  does  it  differ  from  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  definition  of  the  purpose  of  our 
fathers : 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  upon  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived 
in  liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that 
all  men  are  created  equal. 

There  is  one  important  difference.  Jesus 
Christ  recognized  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
mated  with  it,  perhaps  I  should  say  deduced 
from  it,  the  Brotherhood  of  Man.     In  this 


64      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

respect  he  Is  still  In  advance  of  modern  po- 
litical and  social  reformers.  There  Is  no 
ground  that  I  can  perceive  for  the  faith  that 
all  men  are  brethren  except  the  faith  that  we 
are  all  children  of  one  Father. 

All  ye  are  brethren:  that  Is  democracy; 
one  is  your  Father:  that  Is  the  spiritual 
foundation  of  democracy. 

Democracy  Is  not  a  mere  form  of  govern- 
ment. It  Is  a  religious  faith.  It  is  a  spirit 
of  life  —  a  spirit  of  mutual  regard  for  each 
other's  Interests  and  mutual  respect  for  each 
other's  opinions;  it  is  government  by  public 
opinion;  it  is  liberty,  equality,  fraternity  —  In 
the  Institutions  of  religion,  of  Industry,  and 
of  education  as  well  as  in  government;  In  a 
word,  it  Is  human  brotherhood.  We  are 
not  fighting  to  impose  our  political  institutions 
or  our  political  Ideals  on  reluctant  peoples. 
We  are  fighting  to  maintain  the  right  of  eager 
peoples  to  organize  their  Institutions  in  har- 
mony with  this  spirit  of  brotherhood.  We 
have  joined  with  all  the  free  peoples  of  the 
world  in  a  stern  resolve,  not  that  all  Nations 
shall  be  Christian,  but  that  all  Nations  shall 
have  liberty  to  be  Christian  If  they  wish. 

This  human  brotherhood  involves  four 
fundamental  liberties: 

Religious  liberty. 

Industrial  liberty. 


''  The  Republic  of  God  "  6| 

Educational  liberty. 

Political  liberty. 

And  these  liberties  are  not  only  rights; 
they  are  also  duties.  We  sometimes  ought 
to  forego  our  rights ;  we  never  ought  to  aban- 
don our  duties. 

I.  The  prophet  Ezekiel,  overcome  by  the 
vision  of  Jehovah  in  the  Temple,  threw  him- 
self upon  his  face  before  his  God.  And  the 
Voice  said  unto  him,  "  Son  of  man,  stand 
upon  thy  feet,  and  I  will  speak  to  thee." 

It  is  a  fundamental  right  of  man  to  stand 
upon  his  feet,  and  face,  unafraid,  the  Al- 
mighty. This  is  his  right  because  this  is  his 
duty.  It  is  not  right  for  him  to  allow  any 
priest,  church,  creed,  or  book  to  stand  between 
him  and  his  heavenly  Father.  The  priest,  the 
church,  the  creed,  the  book,  may  help  him  to 
find  his  way  to  God;  they  may  help  him  to 
understand  his  God;  but  they  never  should 
be  allowed  to  take  the  place  of  God.  God  Is 
not  an  absentee,  to  be  interpreted  only  by  a 
messenger  or  a  letter.  He  is  man's  ''  Great 
Companion."  The  messenger  and  the  letter 
are  useful  only  as  they  bring  the  soul  into 
companionship  with  that  Companion.  It  is 
the  right  of  every  man  to  give  account  of 
himself  to  God  because  it  is  the  duty  of  every 
man  to  give  account  of  himself  to  God.  No 
substitute   can  do  this  for  him.     The   rec- 


66      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

ognltlon  of  this  right  and  the  fulfillment  of 
this  duty  forbid  all  spiritual  despotism,  and 
are  a  sacred  and  solemn  guaranty  of  spiritual 
liberty. 

This  is  Religious  Democracy. 

2.  God  made  this  world  for  the  habitation 
of  man  and  has  given  it  to  him  for  his  dwell- 
ing-place. It  was  not  made  specially  for 
white  men  or  for  Anglo-Saxon  men  or  for  rich 
men  or  for  wise  men  or  for  good  men;  it  was 
made  for  all  men.  They  are  all  his  children. 
And  they  all  have  a  right  to  a  share  In  it.  In 
the  Father's  house  there  Is  bread  enough  and 
to  spare;  why  should  any  one  perish  with 
hunger?  That  is  the  question  which  the 
hungry  in  every  land  are  asking,  and  they 
have  a  right  to  ask  it.  Society  is  not  di- 
vinely organized  when  some  men  have  so 
much  that  they  know  not  how  to  use  It,  and 
others  so  little  that  they  know  not  how  to 
live. 

Whether  the  twin  evils  of  luxurious  wealth 
and  sordid  poverty  are  due  to  the  rich  or  to 
the  poor  or  to  neither  but  to  a  vicious  organ- 
ization of  society  I  do  not  here  consider. 
They  are  evils  which  democracy  is  endeavor- 
ing to  cure  by  promoting  a  better  distribution 
of  wealth.  And  In  doing  this  democracy  is 
endeavoring  not  only  to  secure  to  all  men  their 
rights,  but  to  enable  all  men  to  perform  their 


''  The  Republic  of  God  "  67 

duties.  For  it  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  put 
Into  the  world  at  least  as  much  as  he  takes 
out  of  it,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  society  to  make 
this  possible  for  every  man. 

I  have  met  many  skeptics,  but  never  one  so 
skeptical  that  he  doubted  the  Biblical  state- 
ment, "  Naked  came  I  out  of  my  mother's 
womb."  Coming  Into  the  world  naked,  It  is 
clear  that  if  we  are  to  possess  anything  we 
must  either  produce  It,  accept  it  as  a  gift,  steal 
It,  or  get  it  out  of  the  common  stock.  Who- 
ever does  not  by  some  service  of  hand  or 
brain  or  heart,  by  what  he  does  or  what  he 
endures,  by  what  he  makes  or  what  he  says 
or  what  he  suffers,  contribute  his  share  to  the 
world's  welfare,  must  be  classed  with  the 
beggars,  whether  he  Is  clad  In  rags  or  in 
velvet.  To  make  such  contribution  Is  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  every  man. 

This  Is  Industrial  Democracy. 

3.  We  are  In  this  world  in  the  making! 
The  object  of  life  Is  the  development  of  men 
and  women.  It  Is  therefore  the  duty  of 
every  one  to  make  of  himself,  and  of  every 
parent  to  make  of  his  children,  the  best  prod- 
uct possible.  The  Northern  radical  affirms 
that  the  Negro  can  be  made  the  peer  of  the 
white  man,  and  therefore  ought  to  have  the 
same  education.  The  Southern  conservative 
declares  that  the  Negro  never  can  be  made 


68      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

the  peer  of  the  white  man,  and  therefore 
ought  not  to  have  the  same  education.  Both 
are  guessing.  What  the  Negro  race  can  be- 
come after  an  education  Hke  that  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  no  one  can  foretell.  And 
the  expe  iment  can  never  be  tried.  For  it  Is 
not  within  the  power  of  man  so  to  shape  the 
world's  destiny  as  to  pass  one  race  through 
the  educational  process  through  which  other 
races  have  passed.  It  is  neither  possible  nor 
desirable  that  the  Africans  or  the  East  In- 
dians or  the  Chinese  or  the  Japanese  should 
become  replicas  of  the  Anglo-Saxons. 

This  truth  democracy  recognizes,  and 
therefore  wherever  It  has  gone  it  has  estab- 
lished the  public  school.  The  object  of  edu- 
cation should  not  be  to  run  all  pupils  Into  the 
same  mold.  The  school  should  not  be  a 
foundry.  The  object  should  be  to  give  to 
every  pupil  a  chance  to  grow.  The  school 
should  be  a  garden.  Education,  therefore, 
should  prepare  for  life,  which  is  itself  the 
larger  education.  It  should  be  adapted  to 
the  present  conditions  and  the  prospective 
needs  of  the  pupil.  The  growing  recognition 
of  this  truth  has  created  optionalism  in  edu- 
cation, has  added  Industrial  training  to 
academic  education,  has  provided,  as  never 
before,  for  woman's  education.  To  enjoy  an 
opportunity   for   education   is   the   right   of 


''  The  Republic  of  God ''  69 

every  individual;  to  make  that  opportunity 
so  varied  as  to  meet  the  varied  needs  of  the 
members  is  the  duty  of  society;  to  avail  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  to  make  all  of  him- 
self that  he  can  make  is  the  duty  of  every 
individual. 

This  Is  Educational  Democracy. 

4.  It  is  the  right  and  duty  of  every  man 
to  govern  himself.  It  is  one  object  of  edu- 
cation to  prepare  him  to  perform  this  duty. 
It  is  his  right  to  determine  his  own  destiny  — 
his  right  because  his  duty.  And  as  he  must 
see  with  his  own  eyes,  work  with  his  own 
hands,  and  think  with  his  own  brain,  so  he 
must  guide  himself  with  his  own  judgment  and 
rule  himself  with  his  own  conscience.  If  he 
is  blind,  some  one  else  must  see  for  him;  if 
he  Is  paralyzed,  some  one  else  must  work  for 
him.  So,  if  he  has  no  judgment  or  no  con- 
science, some  one  else  must  guide  and  rule 
him.  But  every  normal  man  Is  furnished 
with  eyes  to  see,  hands  to  work,  judgment 
to  guide,  conscience  to  rule.  Such  is  the  as- 
sumption of  democracy,  which  holds  that  the 
object  of  all  just  government  is  to  prepare  the 
governed  to  govern  himself.  Democracy, 
therefore,  in  the  family  and  In  the  school 
trains  the  growing  child  in  the  art  of  self- 
government.  And  democracy  in  the  state 
throws  responsibility  upon  the  untrained  citi- 


70      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

zen  and  Is  not  discouraged  If  he  blunders  and 
sometimes  blunders  badly,  for  democracy  be- 
lieves that  the  untrained  voter  will  learn  by 
his  own  blunders. 

This  Is  Political  Democracy. 

This  Is  the  democracy  for  which  we  are 
fighting  against  Its  resolute  and  remorseless 
foes.  For  Germany  recognizes  not  one  of 
these  rights,  not  one  of  these  duties. 

Germany  has  not  political  liberty. 

And  the  German  people  do  not  desire  polit- 
ical liberty;  It  Involves  responsibilities  which 
they  do  not  wish  to  assume.  Germany  Is 
autocratic  not  only  In  its  form  of  government, 
but  In  the  spirit  of  Its  people.  Professor 
Kuno  Francke,  of  the  German  Department 
In  Harvard  University,  In  an  essay  written 
before  the  war,  thus  characterizes  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  American  and  the  Ger- 
man temperament: 

I  think  I  need  not  fear  any  serious  opposition  if 
I  designate  self-possession  as  the  cardinal  American 
virtue.  ...  In  contradiction  to  this  fundamental 
American  trait  of  self-possession,  I  designate  the 
passion  for  self-surrender  as  perhaps  the  most  sig- 
nificant expression  of  national  German  character. 

He  adds  that,  while  this  passion  leads  the 
German  at  times  to  surrender  himself  to  a 
great  cause  or  sacred  task,  It  also  leads  him  to 


''The  Republic  of  God''  71 

surrender  himself  to  whims  and  hysterias  of 
all  sorts.     He  says : 

Nobody  can  be  a  more  relentless  destroyer  of  all 
that  makes  life  beautiful  and  lovely,  nobody  can  be 
a  more  savage  hater  of  religious  beliefs,  of  popular 
tradition,  of  patriotic  instincts,  than  the  German 
who  has  convinced  himself  that  by  the  uprooting  of 
all  these  things  he  performs  the  sacred  task  of  sav- 
ing society. 

The  events  which  have  occurred  In  Bel- 
gium, northern  France,  Serbia,  and  Armenia 
since  this  essay  of  Professor  Francke's  was 
written  furnish  a  tragic  illustration  of  its 
truth.  It  has  been  demonstrated  to  be  a  cor- 
rect Interpretation  of  German  character. 

Germany  has  not  educational  liberty. 

Its  teachers  are  appointed  in  the  provinces 
by  the  King,  In  the  Empire  by  the  Emperor. 
The  object  of  their  appointment  was  with  al- 
most brutal  frankness  defined  by  the  Austrian 
Emperor  after  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  I 
at  Waterloo,  In  a  speech  to  the  German  pro- 
fessors at  Laybach :  "  I  do  not  need  savants 
but  sturdy  subjects.  It  is  your  duty  to  edu- 
cate the  young  to  be  such.  He  who  serves 
me  must  learn  what  I  order:  he  who  cannot 
or  who  brings  me  new  ideas  can  go,  or  I  will 
dismiss  him."  The  common  people  in  Ger- 
many have  never  been  taught  to  think  for 


72      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

themselves.  For  at  least  half  a  century  they 
have  been  trained  to  regard  the  authority  of 
the  State  as  the  supreme  authority,  and  obe- 
dience to  its  commands  as  the  supreme  virtue. 

Germany  has  not  industrial  liberty. 

It  is  a  well  recognized  economic  truth  that 
all  wealth  is  derived  from  the  land.  In 
America  by  our  Homestead  Law  we  threw 
open  our  agricultural  lands  to  all  the  world, 
giving  1 60  acres  to  any  individual  who  would 
live  upon  them  and  cultivate  them;  and, 
though  we  carelessly  allowed  our  mines,  for- 
ests, and  water  powers  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  a  few  wealthy  owners,  we  are  attempting 
by  our  policy  of  conservation  and  of  land 
taxation  to  correct  that  well-nigh  fatal  error. 
In  Germany  the  ancient  feudal  system  sur- 
vives, which  puts  the  control  of  the  nation's 
wealth  into  the  hands  of  a  landed  aristocracy, 
popularly  known  as  Junkers.  Peasant  pro- 
prietorship is  practically  unknown. 

Germany  has  not  religious  liberty. 

*'  Perfect  love  casteth  out  fear."  It  is 
equally  true  that  fear  casteth  out  love.  The 
religion  inculcated  by  the  leaders  of  German 
thought  and  life  is  the  religion  of  fear.  The 
reverence  demanded  is  for  a  God  who  is  the 
ally  of  the  military  power,  and  the  worship 
inspired  if  not  inculcated  is  the  worship  of 
Odin,  not  of  Christ.     Bernhardi  represented 


''  The  Republic  of  God  "  73 

this  spirit  in  his  declaration  that  "  Might 
proves  itself  the  supreme  Right."  The 
Emperor  represented  it  when  in  1900  he  put 
before  his  soldiers  Attila,  the  ruthless  king 
of  the  Huns,  as  the  model  for  them  to  follow. 
Pastor  Vorwerk  represented  it  in  his  para- 
phrase of  the  Lord's  Prayer:  "  Though  the 
warrior's  bread  be  scanty,  do  Thou  work 
daily  death  and  tenfold  woe  unto  the  enemy. 
Forgive  in  merciful  long-suffering  each  bullet 
and  each  blow  which  misses  its  mark!  "  It 
is  not  difficult  to  believe  the  apparently  well 
authenticated  report,  that  the  verse  which 
I  here  quote,  by  an  unnamed  German  poet, 
has  had  wide  circulation  and  great  popularity 
throughout  Germany  during  this  war.  Con- 
trast these  two  ideals,  the  first  this  ode  to 
Odin  by  a  modern  German  poet,  the  second 
The  Miniature  of  Christ,  by  Sir  OHver 
Lodge,  a  modern  English  philosopher. 

THE   GERMAN  GOD 

The  foes  of  Germany,  full  of  irony,  inquire: 
"  You  Germans  call  upon  God,  and  pray  to  him 
To  aid  you  in  the  battle. 
So  you  have  a  God  of  your  own, 
Whom  we  know  not, 
A  God  on  j^our  side?  " 

"  Yes,"  cries  all  Germany,  "  and  if  you  know  him 
not 


74      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

We  shall  tell  you  his  name. 

The  God  who  speaks  through  our  guns, 

The  God  who  shatters  your  fortresses, 

Who  roars  in  the  sea  by  our  cliffs, 

Who  hovers  in  the  heavens  with  our  aeroplanes, 

The  God  of  our  swords,  who  fills  you  with  affright, 

He  is  the  same  Almighty  Spirit 

Who  through  the  centuries 

Has  hovered  over  Germany, 

Who  weaves  and  mixes  all  our  lives, 

And  on  whom  we  depend. 

Odin  the  ancient  vagabond  of  the  clouds, 

The  Odin  of  our  fathers,  it  is  He  and  no  other." 

THE    CHRISTIAN   GOD 

Overwhelmingly  and  appallingly  simple  is  the  no- 
tion presented  to  us  by  the  orthodox  Christian 
Churches:  —  a  babe  born  of  poor  parents,  born  in 
a  stable  among  cattle  because  there  was  no  room 
for  them  in  the  village  inn  —  no  room  for  them  in 
the  inn  —  what  a  master  touch !  Revealed  to 
shepherds.  Religious  people  inattentive.  Royalty 
ignorant,  or  bent  on  massacre.  .  .  .  Then  the  child 
growing  into  a  peasant  youth,  brought  up  to  a 
trade.  At  length  a  few  years  of  itinerant  preach- 
ing; flashes  of  miraculous  power  and  insight.  And 
then  a  swift  end:  set  upon  by  the  religious  people; 
his  followers  over-awed  and  scattered,  himself  tried 
as  a  blasphemer,  flogged,  and  finally  tortured  to 
death.  .  .  .  Such  occurrences  seem  inevitable  to 
highest  humanity   in   an   unregenerate  world;   but 


''The  Republic  of  God''  75 

who,  without  inspiration  would  see  in  them  a  revela- 
tion of  the  nature  of  God? 

We  are  fighting  to  make  the  world  safe  for 
this  democracy,  safe  for  liberty,  equality, 
fraternity,  safe  for  a  community  inspired  by 
the  faith  that  One  is  your  Father,  even  God 
and  all  ye  are  brethren.  When  this  cam- 
paign is  ended  and  this  safety  has  been  se- 
cured, then  each  Nation  will  be  free  to  enter 
on  such  studies,  discussions  and  experiments 
as  shall  make  clear  what  democracy  means, 
that  is,  what  it  means  to  recognize  in  all  men 
our  brethren,  in  life  an  opportunity  for  mu- 
tual fellowship  and  mutual  service,  and  in 
God  one  to  be  revered  not  for  his  might  but 
for  his  love,  his  service  and  his  self-sacrifice. 

This  is  the  crusade  to  which  your  son  has 
consecrated  himself.     Are  you  not  glad? 


SEVENTH  LETTER 

Christ's  peace 

Never  before  have  we  understood  as  we 
do  now  Paul's  experience:  "We  are 
troubled  on  every  side  yet  not  distressed;  we 
are  perplexed  but  not  in  despair."  As  moths 
to  the  candle  so  we  fly  to  the  daily  paper  to 
increase  the  troubles  of  our  mind  by  reading 
scenes  from  the  terrible  tragedy  enacted  on 
the  European  stage.  The  pathetic  cry  of  the 
Psalmist  of  old  is  repeated  in  our  hearts: 
"  Oh,  that  I  had  wings  like  a  dove!  Then 
would  I  fly  away,  and  be  at  rest." 

But  we  have  not  wings  and  cannot  fly  and 
if  we  could,  flight  would  not  give  us  the  rest 
we  covet.  We  have  tried  that  method  and 
it  failed.  When  this  war  burst  upon  Europe 
we  struggled  hard  to  persuade  ourselves  that 
its  causes  were  obscure,  that  it  was  a  new 
outbreak  of  the  senseless  struggle  between 
ambitious,  covetous,  jealous  rulers  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  it  did  not  concern  us,  that  we  could 
be  and  ought  to  be  neutral  in  thought  and 
feeling  as  well  as  in  official  acts.  And  we 
76 


Chris t^s  Peace  77 

struggled  to  quiet  our  consciences  by  listening 
to  the  soporific  preachments,  by  press,  by 
politicians,  and  sometimes  by  pulpit,  urging 
that  it  was  our  duty  as  well  as  our  self-inter- 
est to  keep  out  of  the  war. 

But  our  consciences  were  not  quieted.  We 
could  not  read  of  robbery  and  murder  upon 
an  enormous  scale  and  be  unconcerned.  We 
could  not  see  treaties  rudely  broken,  un- 
fortified cities  bombarded,  helpless  men, 
women  and  children  killed,  peaceable  mer- 
chant ships  torpedoed  and  deliberate  attempts 
avowedly  made  to  crush  the  France  that  in 
1776  had  come  to  our  rescue,  and  remain 
neutral  In  thought  and  feeling.  A  great, 
rich  nation,  strong  unless  Its  cowardice  made 
It  weak,  we  could  not  play  the  part  of  Gallio 
and  care  for  none  of  these  things.  We  could 
not  deceive  ourselves  with  the  pleasing  delu- 
sion that  we  loved  peace  when  we  were  only 
afraid  of  war.  Our  pride  in  our  wealth  and 
our  numbers  became  our  shame.  The  de- 
mocracy which  had  been  our  glory  became  our 
dishonor.  Our  trouble  grew  to  be  a  dis- 
tress; our  perplexity  a  despair.  The  day  of 
peace  dawned  upon  us  on  that  memorable 
Good  Friday  when  as  a  nation  we  recognized 
the  truth  that  the  battle  for  freedom  fought 
by  our  kin  across  the  sea  did  concern  us,  and 
reluctantly  declared  to  ourselves  and  to  the 


78      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

world  that  Germany  was  making  war  upon  us 
and  upon  all  civilized  peoples. 

Cowardly  flight  from  duty  never  leads  to 
peace.  Courageous  fulfillment  of  duty  never 
falls  to  find  It. 

I  read  the  other  day  the  story  of  a  boy  who 
offered  himself  as  a  volunteer  and  was  re- 
jected because  of  the  unsoundness  of  his 
teeth.  He  went  to  a  dentist,  had  them  all 
extracted  and  a  set  of  false  teeth  furnished 
him,  then  returned  and  was  accepted.  He 
will  not  be  troubled  by  the  Inconveniences  and 
discomforts  of  camp  life.  He  will  not  be 
perplexed  because  he  Is  ordered  to  disagree- 
able or  perilous  duty.  He  will  not  be  dis- 
tressed If  he  is  wounded  or  taken  prisoner. 
He  has  given  himself  to  the  war  In  order  that 
he  may  render  whatever  service  he  Is  called 
upon  to  render  and  to  suffer  whatever  discom- 
forts or  pains  that  service  Involves.  He  has 
given  his  life  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-men 
and  put  himself  under  the  orders  of  a  com- 
mander whom  he  does  not  know  and  may 
never  see,  and  he  will  neither  hesitate  because 
he  Is  ordered  to  the  front  at  the  Imminent 
peril  of  his  life,  nor  grumble  because  he  is 
ordered  to  the  rear  to  guard  munitions  or 
take  part  In  hospital  service. 

The  difference  between  a  true  and  a 
spurious  religious    experience    is    strikingly 


Christ's  Peace  79 

illustrated  by  the  contrast  between  the  pre- 
tentious faith  of  the  Kaiser  and  the  unpre- 
tentious faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Em- 
peror WiUiam  at  Berlin,  March  29,  1901, 
said:  "We  will  be  everywhere  victorious 
even  if  we  are  surrounded  by  enemies  on  all 
sides  and  even  if  we  have  to  fight  superior 
numbers,  for  our  most  powerful  ally  is  God, 
who,  since  the  time  of  the  Great  Elector  and 
Great  King,  has  always  been  on  our  side." 
Abraham  Lincoln,  during  the  darkest  hours 
of  the  Civil  War,  in  response  to  the  question 
whether  he  was  sure  that  God  was  on  our  side 
replied:  I  do  not  know;  I  have  not  thought 
about  that.  But  I  am  very  desirous  to  know 
that  we  are  on  God's  side. 

In  false  religious  experience  we  have  a 
plan  which  we  wish  to  carry  out;  we  have 
faith  that  it  is  right  and  wise,  that  is,  faith 
in  ourselves;  and  we  want  a  silent  partner 
who  will  enable  us  to  carry  out  our  plan. 
That  is  the  measure  of  our  faith  in  God.  In 
true  religious  experience  we  believe  with 
Hegel  that  "God  governs  the  world;  the 
actual  work  of  his  government  —  the  carry- 
ing out  of  his  plans  —  is  the  history  of  the 
world,"  and  we  want  to  help  him  to  accom- 
plish his  design.  In  the  one  case  we  want 
God  as  our  ally;  in  the  other  case  we  want 
to  be  the  ally  of  God.     In  the  one  case  we 


8o      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

want  him  to  do  our  will;  In  the  other  case 
we  want  to  do  his  will.  In  the  one  case  we 
want  God  to  fight  our  battles  for  us;  in  the 
other  case  we  exult  in  the  faith  that  he  wants 
us  to  fight  his  battles  with  him. 

I  read  occasionally  some  writer  who  says 
that  "  Since  God  is  God  and  right  Is  right 
it  is  impossible  that  we  should  be  defeated  in 
this  war."  I  do  not  think  we  shall  be  de- 
feated In  this  war.  All  signs  seem  to  me  to 
justify  the  conviction  that  we  shall  win  just 
as  decisive  a  victory  as  we  deserve,  that  if  we 
suffer  any  partial  defeat  it  will  be  because  we 
have  grown  weary  of  the  war  and  are  willing 
to  make  terms  with  the  brigands  against 
whom  we  are  fighting.  But  if  it  should  be 
otherwise,  if  the  Kaiser  should  win  all  that 
he  hoped  to  win,  if  by  conquest  and  alliances 
he  should  establish  a  Pan-German  Europe 
extending  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Persian 
Gulf,  It  would  not  have  any  tendency  to  shake 
my  faith  in  God. 

To  believe  that  God  will  carry  out  our 
plans,  that  he  will  submit  himself  to  our 
judgments,  that  he  will  fulfill  our  requests, 
that  he  will  do  our  v/lll,  is  not  to  have  faith 
in  God.  To  have  faith  in  God  is  to  believe 
that  he  knows  what  his  children  need;  that 
he  dares  to  allow  them  to  take  their  own 
Vay  and  learn  by  bitter  experience  the  les- 


Christ's  Peace  8i 

son  which  they  would  not  learn  from  teach- 
ing; and  It  is  so  to  learn  that  lesson  from 
this  terrible  experience  that  it  will  never  have 
to  be  repeated.  Present  defeat,  therefore,  If 
it  should  come,  though  I  repeat  I  think  it 
hardly  conceivable,  would  only  convince  me 
that  God  sees  that  the  free  Nations  need  de- 
feat in  order  that  they  may  learn  the  lessons 
he  would  have  us  learn;  among  them  that 
democracy  will  not  be  perfected  until  it  be- 
comes a  Brotherhood  of  Man,  and  a  Brother- 
hood of  Man  is  impossible  unless  founded  on 
faith  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

Jesus  Christ  offers  to  his  disciples  not 
escape  from  the  battle  of  life  but  peace  of  the 
spirit  on  the  battlefield.  "  Come  unto  me  all 
ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,"  he  says, 
*'  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke 
upon  you,  and  learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart:  and  ye  shall  find  rest 
unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and 
my  burden  is  light."  He  offers,  not  escape 
from  life's  burdens  but  a  yoke  which  will  en- 
able us  to  bear  its  burdens.  That  yoke  is 
obedience  to  our  Heavenly  Father  as  Christ 
was^bedlent  to  his  Heavenly  Father.  It  is 
making  our  prayer,  that  Is  th^  supreme  desire 
of  our  life,  that  our  Father's  will,  not  ours, 
may  be  done. 

What  would  be   thought  of   a   would-be 


82       The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

soldier  who  should  offer  his  services  on  condi- 
tions such  as:  "I  must  be  assured  eight 
hours'  sleep  every  night";  or,  "I  am  very 
dependent  upon  regular  meals  and  my  coffee 
in  the  morning  ";  or,  "  Wet  feet  are  sure  to 
give  me  a  cold,  I  must  guard  against  that." 
Conditional  volunteering  is  as  preposterous 
in  life  as  in  the  army;  for  life  also  is  war. 
Mr.  Wells,  in  "  God  the  Invisible  King,"  puts 
with  characteristic  forcefulness  the  kind  of 
volunteering  required:  "God  takes  all. 
He  takes  you,  blood  and  bones  and  house 
and  acres,  he  takes  skill  and  influence  and 
expectations.  For  all  the  rest  of  your  life 
you  are  nothing  but  God's  agent.  If  you  are 
not  prepared  for  so  complete  a  surrender, 
then  you  are  infinitely  remote  from  God. 
You  must  go  your  way.  Here  you  are  merely 
a  curious  interloper." 

He  who  makes  this  dedication  of  himself, 
who  realizes  that  life  is  a  battle  and  gives 
himself  unreservedly  to  doing  his  bit,  will 
never  be  tempted  to  ask  himself,  "  Is  life 
worth  living?  "  and  will  never  complain  to 
others  or  pity  himself  because  his  service  is 
hard  and  its  results  are  disappointing.  He 
will  not  be  perplexed  because  his  companions 
in  the  war  are  called  to  endure  great  self- 
sacrifices  and  go  through  great  sorrows;  and 
when  one  after  another  of  these  life  com- 


Christ's  Peace  83 

rades  fall  at  his  side  he  will  still  go  forward, 
unterrified,  unhalted,  unhesitating.  "  I  have 
nothing  to  fear,"  says  one  French  soldier  to 
his  mother.  "  The  worst  that  can  happen 
to  me  is  to  be  killed,  and  to  die  for  a  noble 
cause  when  one  is  young  is  a  great  blessing." 
Writes  another  to  his  parents,  "  One  must 
live  the  present  without  thinking  of  the 
future.  To  be  nearer  danger  and  death  is  to 
be  nearer  God,  and  therefore  why  pity  us? 
Put  your  trust  in  God !  Everything  happens 
according  to  His  will,  and  it  is  ever  for  the 
best."  The  pubHshed  letters  from  the  front 
contain  many  similar  experiences  of  peace  in 
the  midst  of  peril.  The  remedy  for  the 
doubts,  the  perplexities,  the  disbeliefs  of  a 
troubled  mind  is  a  whole-hearted  consecra- 
tion to  a  great  cause  and  a  great  Captain. 

This  is  very  different  from  the  faith  that 
by  and  by  this  troubled  life  will  end  and  we 
shall  enter  into  our  rest  in  Heaven.  It  is 
very  different  from  the  belief  that  "  God's  in 
his  Heaven,  all's  right  with  the  world."  It 
is  the  faith  that  God  is  on  the  earth  making 
all  right  with  the  world.  It  is  the  faith  that 
the  end  which  we  have  helped  to  achieve  will 
at  last  be  achieved  and  will  be  worth  all  that 
it  costs  us  and  all  that  it  costs  him.  It  is  a 
faith  which  gives  us  rest  here  in  the  midst  of 
the  trouble.     It  is  the  faith  of  the  Psalmist: 


84      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

*'  I  had  fainted  unless  I  had  believed  to  see 
the  goodness  of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the 
living."  "  To  see  it,'*  says  John  Henry 
Jowett,  "  in  the  very  land  which  seems  to  be 
crowded  only  with  convulsion,  and  sorrow, 
and  disaster."  It  is  the  faith  of  the  author 
of  the  forty-sixth  Psalm  —  I  quote  from  the 
Prayer  Book  version  which  I  believe  to  be  the 
true  interpretation  of  the  Psalmist's  faith  — 

God  is  our  hope  and  strength, 
A  very  present  help  in  trouble. 
Therefore  will  we  not  fear  though  the  earth  be 

moved, 
And  though  the  hills  be  carried  into  the  midst  of 

the  sea. 
Though  the  waters  thereof  rage  and  swell. 
And  though  the  mountains  shake  at  the  tempest 

of  the  same. 
The  rivers  of  the  flood  thereof  shall  make  glad 

the  city  of  God  ; 
The  holy  place  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Most 

Highest. 

Mr.  Ruskin  has  given  an  eloquent  descrip- 
tion of  the  mountain  storms  which  strikingly 
illustrates  this  faith  in  the  Psalmist:  "  But, 
as  we  pass  beneath  the  hills  which  have  been 
shaken  by  earthquake  and  torn  by  convulsion, 
we  Hnd  that  periods  of  perfect  repose  suc- 
ceeded those  of  destruction."  .  .  .  *'  It  is 
just  where  '  the  mountain  falling  cometh  to 


Chris t^s  Peace  85 

naught,  and  the  rock  is  removed  out  of  his 
place,'  that,  in  process  of  years,  the  fairest 
meadows  bloom  between  the  fragments,  the 
clearest  rivulets  murmur  from  their  crevices 
among  the  flowers,  and  the  clustered  cottages, 
each  sheltered  beneath  some  strength  of 
mossy  stone,  now  to  be  removed  no  more, 
and  with  their  pastured  flocks  around  them, 
safe  from  the  eagle's  stoop  and  the  wolf's 
ravin,  have  written  upon  their  fronts,  in 
simple  words,  the  mountaineer's  faith  in  the 
ancient  promise  — 

*  Neither  shalt  thou  be  afraid  of  destruction  when 

it  Cometh ; 

*  For  thou  shalt  be  in  league  with  the  Stones  of 

the  Field  ; 

*  And  the  beasts  of  the  field  shall  be  at  peace  with 

thee.'  " 

When  we  look  back  over  the  history  of  the 
world,  we  see  that  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ, 
which  to  the  disciples  seemed  the  end  of  all 
their  hopes,  was  the  birth  of  Christianity, 
that  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  to 
the  Jews  seemed  the  end  of  spiritual  religion, 
was  but  the  breaking  of  the  alabaster  box 
that  the  perfume  of  its  contents  might  spread 
throughout  the  world,  that  the  decline  and 
fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  which  seemed  to 
th?  mm  of  that  time  to  be  the  overthrow  of 


86      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

civilization,  was  but  the  labor  pains  of  a  new 
and  Christian  civilization,  that  in  our  own 
country  the  Civil  War,  which  at  the  time  ap- 
peared to  portend  an  enmity  between  the 
North  and  the  South  which  could  only  be 
overcome  after  two  or  three  generations,  did 
in  fact  unite  the  North  and  the  South  in  the 
bonds  of  a  friendship  founded  on  mutuality 
of  respect  greater  than  the  nation  had  ever 
before  known.  Instructed  by  such  a  survey 
of  the  past  it  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  believe 
that  the  present  great  world  cataclysm,  when 
it  has  accomplished  the  divine  purpose,  will 
advance  the  world  far  on  its  road  toward  that 
kingdom  of  God  which  is  righteousness,  peace 
and  joy  in  holiness  of  spirit. 

But  if  the  sufferings  which  our  boys  must 
endure  sometimes  make  us  hesitate  to  enter 
upon  this  campaign,  the  sufferings  which  they 
must  inflict  appall  us.  They  must  not  only 
be  ready  to  die  but  they  must  also  be  ready  to 
kill. 

It  IS  true  that  many  German  children  will 
be  made  orphans  and  many  German  wives 
will  be  made  widows  by  our  arms,  and  Ger- 
many, which  four  years  ago  was  so  pros- 
perous, will  be  left  as  Belgium,  France,  and 
Italy  will  be  left,  desolate  and  draped  in 
mourning,  and  it  will  have  lost  what  is  the 
natIon*s  greatest  possession  —  honor.     And 


Christ's  Peace  87 

yet  it  is  also  true  that  we  are  fighting  to 
emancipate  Germany  no  less  than  to  eman- 
cipate Belgium,  France  and  Italy.  We  are 
going  to  make  the  whole  world  safe  for  the 
Brotherhood  of  Man  —  Germany  no  less 
than  the  countries  which  the  German  auto- 
cracy has  attacked.  And  we  are  going  to 
do  it  whatever  it  costs  us  and  whatever  it 
costs  those  whom  we  are  fighting. 

When  Jesus  drove  out  from  the  helpless 
boy  the  demon  that  possessed  him,  "  the  boy 
became  as  one  dead;  in  so  much  that  the 
more  part  said,  He  is  dead."  This  war  must 
not  end  until  the  demon  of  lawless  self-con- 
ceit and  self-will  is  driven  out  of  the  German 
nation,  though  the  nation  be  left  as  one  dead 
by  the  very  act  which  saves  its  people  from 
the  madness  which  possesses  them. 

''  My  peace  I  give  unto  you,"  said  Jesus 
Christ,  in  his  farewell  talk  with  his  disciples: 
^'  not  as  the  world  gtveth  give  I  unto  you.'' 
What  is  the  difference? 

The  world  sometimes  offers  peace  to  the 
coward  who  flees  from  the  field  of  battle  or 
proposes  conciliation  and  compromise  with 
enemies  of  righteousness.  Christ  never!  No 
more  uncompromising  enemy,  no  more  vehe- 
ment repudiator  of  all  attempts  to  escape  con- 
flict by  peace  without  victory  does  the  history 
of  the  human  race  afford.     We  remember  his 


88      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

saying  to  the  woman  taken  in  adultery, 
"  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee."  We  forget 
that  he  adds  "  From  henceforth  sin  no  more." 
We  remember  his  saying  to  the  penitent 
brigand,  "  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me 
in  Paradise."  We  forget  that  to  the  im- 
penitent brigand  he  offered  no  word  of  com- 
fort or  consolation.  We  remember  his 
humility  in  washing  his  disciples'  feet.  We 
forget  his  saying  to  Peter,  "  If  I  wash  thee 
not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me."  We  re- 
member his  welcome  to  those  who  came  to 
him  whatever  their  past  offenses  —  Matthew, 
Zaccheus,  the  publicans  and  harlots.  We 
forget  his  rejection  of  the  self-confident  disci- 
ple :  "  I  will  follow  thee  whithersoever  thou 
goest,"  but  Jesus  said  unto  him,  "  Foxes  have 
holes,  and  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the 
Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head." 
I  wonder,  did  he  follow  the  Master?  We 
forget  his  rejection  of  the  procrastinating 
disciple:  ''Suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury 
my  father  ";  but  Jesus  said  unto  him,  "  Let 
the  dead  bury  their  dead;  go  thou  and  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God."  We  forget  his  re- 
jection of  the  irresolute  disciple :  "  Lord,  T 
will  follow  thee;  but  let  me  first  go  bid  them 
farewell  which  are  at  home  at  my  house"; 
but  Jesus  said  unto  him,  "  No  man,  having 
put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  looking  back. 


Christ's  Peace  89 

IS  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God."  Thousands 
of  sermons  have  been  preached  on  the  father's 
welcome  of  the  returning  prodigal;  not  many 
on  the  fact  that  the  father  did  not  receive 
the  prodigal  till  he  had  learned  his  lesson 
and  come  home  with  "  I  am  no  more  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son."  Thousands  of  ser- 
mons have  been  preached  on  Christ's  saying 
to  Peter,  "  Thou  art  Peter  and  on  this  rock  I 
will  build  my  church  ";  very  few  on  the  say- 
ing which  followed,  when  Peter  desired  to 
dissuade  his  Master  from  the  cross,  ''  Get 
thee  behind  me,  Satan." 

There  never  can  be  peace  in  this  world 
without  victory.  No  man  can  have  peace  in 
himself  except  as  he  wins  a  victory  over  his 
baser  appetites  and  passions.  No  city  can 
maintain  peace  within  its  limits  except  as  its 
police  win  and  retain  victory  over  the  criminal 
population.  Doing  justice  is  the  essential 
condition  of  peace.  If  a  thug  attacks  a  peace- 
ful citizen,  knocks  him  down,  robs  him  of 
his  watch  and  purse,  and  so  injures  him  that 
he  has  to  go  to  the  hospital  for. repairs, 
justice  is  not  satisfied  by  a  promise  of  the 
thug  not  to  do  it  again.  He  must  restore 
the  stolen  goods  and  pay  the  hospital  charges, 
and,  if  necessary,  be  made  to  feel  such 
*'  humiliation  "  and  "  sting  "  that  he  will  not 
wish  to  repeat  the  crime.     There  can  be  no 


90      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

peace  in  the  world  until  the  prophets  of  false- 
hood and  the  corrupters  and  oppressors  of 
their  fellow-men  are  converted  to  a  God  of 
truth  and  goodness,  or  are  utterly  destroyed 
with  unquenchable  fire. 

In  this  message  to  the  children  of  God  the 
oldest  prophet  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
Master  in  the  New  Testament  unite.  The 
writer  of  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis  tells  us 
that  the  head  of  the  serpent  shall  bruise  man's 
heel;  but  man's  heel  shall  bruise  the  head  of 
the  serpent.  Now  the  head  of  the  serpent  is 
erect,  its  forked  tongue  is  running  out,  its  eyes 
red  with  wrath,  its  very  breath  is  poisonous. 
We  have  a  difficult  task  to  get  our  heel  on  the 
head  but  when  we  do  we  must  grind  it  to 
powder.  The  Master  in  one  of  his  farewell 
messages  to  his  disciples  says  that  he  who 
takes  up  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the 
sword  —  not  by  pestilence,  nor  by  thunder- 
bolt, nor  by  the  act  of  God  —  but  by  the 
sword  in  the  hands  of  man.  That  sword  has 
been  given  to  us  by  our  Master  and  we  must 
not  sheathe  it  until  the  Predatory  Potsdam 
Gang  has  perished  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Not  by  flight  nor  by  compromise,  but  by 
consecration  to  the  completion  of  this  task 
whatever  it  may  cost,  to  us  or  to  others,  shall 
we  find  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  un- 
derstanding. 


EIGHTH  LETTER 

SHOW   ME    THY    PATHS,    O    LORD 

You  are  of  the  opinion  that  all  Christians 
would  wish  to  follow  the  guidance  and  do  the 
will  of  God  if  they  could  know  what  that 
will  is;  but  how  are  we  to  know?  The 
religious  teachers  of  Germany  affirm  with 
great  positiveness  that  it  is  the  will  of  God 
that  Germany  should  impose  her  superior 
Kultur  upon  all  Europe,  and  the  religious 
teachers  of  America  are  equally  positive  that 
it  is  the  will  of  God  that  the  people  of  Europe 
should  be  free  from  any  such  imposition. 
How  are  we  to  know  which  of  these  two 
opinions  is  right? 

This  Is  an  old  perplexity.  Montaigne, 
writing  in  the  sixteenth  century,  maintains 
that  the  laws  of  conscience  proceed  from 
custom  and  he  presents  these  same  perplexities 
to  his  readers:  *'  Such  people  as  have  been 
bred  up  to  liberty,  and  subject  to  none  but 
themselves,  look  upon  all  other  forms  of 
government  as  monstrous  and  contrary  to 
nature.  Those  who  are  used  to  monarchy 
91 


92      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

do  the  same."  How  are  those  of  us  who  do 
not  believe  that  the  laws  of  conscience  are 
derived  from  custom  but  are,  or  ought  to  be, 
interpretations  of  the  will  of  God,  to  know 
whether  God  purposes  for  his  children  an 
autocratic  or  a  democratic  rule,  whether  the 
Germans  or  the  Allies  are  doing  his  will? 

There  are  two  sources  to  which  we  may 
look  for  an  answer  to  this  question:  the 
Bible;  and  Life. 

The  Bible  clearly  affirms  that  it  is  the  will 
of  God  to  throw  upon  men  the  responsibilities 
of  freedom,  the  responsibilities  of  choosing 
for  themselves  their  own  course  in  life,  and 
that  this  is  true  for  communities  as  well  as 
for  individuals.  The  history  of  the  Nation 
in  the  Old  Testament,  the  history  of  the 
Church  in  the  New  Testament  makes  this 
clear. 

God  opens  the  way  for  the  children  of 
Israel  to  escape  from  the  despotism  of  Egypt. 
In  their  flight  they  reach  the  edge  of  the  Red 
Sea.  The  hosts  of  Pharaoh  are  following 
close  after.  The  people  cry  out  in  anguished 
protests  against  Moses.  "  It  were^  better," 
they  say,  "  for  us  to  serve  the  Egyptians  than 
that  we  should  die  in  the  wilderness." 
Moses  replies,  "  Fear  ye  not,  stand  still  and 
see  the  salvation  of  Jehovah.  .  .  .  Jehovah 
will  fight  for  you  and  ye   shall  hold  your 


Show  Me  Thy  Paths,  O  Lord       93 

peace."  But  Jehovah  replies  from  the  clouds 
unto  Moses,  "  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto 
me?  speak  ye  unto  the  children  of  Israel  that 
they  go  forward."  It  is  only  as  they  pluck  up 
their  courage  and  press  forward  into  the  sea 
that  the  waters  are  rolled  back  and  they  pass 
in  safety.  Moses  brings  them  to  Mt.  Sinai. 
He  goes  up  into  the  mount  to  commune  with 
Jehovah.  Jehovah  tells  him  to  go  back  to  the 
people  of  Israel  and  submit  to  them  the  ques- 
tion whether  they  will  have  Jehovah  for  their 
king  or  not  ^'  All  the  people  answered  to- 
gether and  said,  All  that  Jehovah  has  spoken 
we  will  do."  Not  until  then  does  God  give 
them  in  the  Ten  Commandments  the  consti- 
tution for  their  national  life.  After  a  time 
they  become  dissatisfied  with  the  theocratic 
rule  and  ask  for  a  king  to  "  judge  us  like  all 
the  nations."  And  Jehovah  says  to  Samuel, 
*'  Hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  people  in  all 
that  they  say  unto  thee;  for  they  have  not 
rejected  thee,  but  they  have  rejected  me,  that 
I  should  not  be  king  over  them."  At  that 
time  Israel  were  the  only  free  people  in  the 
world,  the  only  people  without  a  landed 
aristocracy  or  an  hereditary  monarch,  and 
with  a  popular  representative  assembly.  But 
they  are  allowed  by  God  to  abandon  de- 
mocracy and  organize  a  kingdom  like  the 
nations  about  them.     Several  centuries  later 


94      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

their  country  Is  overrun  and  they  are  carried 
into  captivity.  When  God  opens  for  them 
a  door  of  escape  and  makes  it  possible  for 
them  to  return  to  their  devastated  land  and 
their  ruined  towns  and  cities,  he  leaves  them 
free  to  take  advantage  of  this  opportunity  or 
not  as  they  choose.  Many  of  them  do  re- 
turn, accepting  the  sacrifices  involved  in  the 
long  pilgrimage  and  in  the  colonial  hfe,  while 
others  remain  in  the  land  of  their  captivity. 
These  epochal  incidents  in  the  national  life 
all  serve  to  indicate  whether  the  writers 
thought  God  willed  for  his  people  a  subject 
or  a  free  life. 

If  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament  we  find 
Christ  giving  to  his  disciples  the  same  free 
choice  and  imposing  upon  them  the  same 
responsibilities.  Before  his  ascension  it  is 
said  he  gave  them  this  commission:  *' As 
the  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you," 
then  bestowed  upon  them  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
told  them  "  whose  soever  sins  ye  remit,  they 
are  remitted  unto  them;  whose  soever  sins 
ye  retain,  they  are  retained."  From  that 
responsibility  the  Church  on  earth  has  never 
been  relieved.  It  is  left  to  us  who  are  the 
disciples  of  Christ  to  abolish  the  sins  which 
poison  the  life  of  humanity.  Empowered  by 
him  we  can  do  it.  If  we  do  not  do  it, 
those   sins  will  remain.     When  we  do  not 


Show  Me  Thy  Paths,  O  Lord       95 

do  it,  those  sins  and  iniquities  do  remain. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  friend  and  companion  of 
his  Church  so  long  as  it  is  loyal,  but  that 
friendship  and  that  companionship  with  his 
followers,  and  their  consequent  power  to  do 
the  work  which  he  has  given  them  to  do,  de- 
pend upon  the  fidelity  and  loyalty  of  his  fol- 
lowers in  his  service. 

If  we  turn  from  the  Bible  to  life  we  see 
written  there  the  same  truth.  I  will  not  at- 
tempt in  this  letter  to  trace  the  history  of 
the  world  and  show  how  it  has  steadily 
progressed  under  divine  leadership  toward 
freedom.  I  will  content  myself  with  out- 
lining very  briefly  the  progress  which  I  my- 
self have  seen  in  the  nearly  three-quarters  of 
a  century  of  my  active  life. 

I  was  born  in  1835,  a  little  over  eighty 
years  ago.  At  that  time  half  of  the 
United  States  was  slave  territory  and  the 
slave  power  controlled  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  most  of  the  churches 
and  religious  institutions  in  the  United 
States,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  its  most  in- 
fluential press. 

England  was  still  governed  by  Its  aristoc- 
racy. There  was  a  House  of  Commons,  but 
It  did  not  represent  the  common  people. 
*'  About  one-half  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons," wrote  William  Paley  in  his  **  Moral 


g6      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

Philosophy,"  ''  obtained  their  seats  In  that 
assembly  by  the  vote  of  the  people,  the 
other  half  by  purchase  or  by  nomination  of 
single  proprietors  of  great  estates."  The 
powers  of  this  House  of  Commons  were 
limited,  since  the  House  of  Lords  possessed 
an  absolute  veto  power  over  all  legislation. 
Labor  servitude  in  the  mines  and  factories  of 
Great  Britain  was  little  better  than  in  the 
slave  States  in  this  country.  There  was  no 
provision  except  by  charity  for  the  education 
of  the  poor. 

France  was  under  the  Imperialistic  control 
of  Napoleon  III,  an  astute  and  unscrupulous 
politician.  There  was  only  the  semblance  of 
popular  representation.  The  final  Repub- 
lican Constitution  was  not  framed  until  1875, 
after  the  Franco-Prussian  War. 

Italy  did  not  exist.  In  that  peninsula, 
once  the  home  of  a  powerful  empire,  were 
provincial  kingdoms,  jealous  of  and  hostile  to 
each  other.  The  States  of  the  Church  were 
under  the  control  of  a  hierarchy  which  for- 
bade liberty  of  speech.  Venice  was  In  decay, 
strangled  by  the  despotism  of  Austria.  And 
the  government  of  Southern  Italy  was  under 
Bourbon  rule,  concerning  which  Mr.  Glad- 
stone wrote  In  1851,  *'  the  Government  is  in 
bitter  and  cruel,  as  well  as  utterly  illegal,  hos- 
tility to  whatever  In  the  nation  really  lives 


Show  Me  Thy  Paths,  O  Lord       97 

and  moves  and  forms  the  mainspring  of  prac- 
tical progress  and  improvement." 

Russia  was  an  absolute  despotism  in  which 
the  people  had  no  Parliamentary  representa- 
tion and  no  rights  of  free  press,  free  assem- 
bly, or  free  speech,  nor  even  freedom  to  peti- 
tion the  Czar. 

During  my  lifetime,  that  is  during  the  last 
eighty-three  years,  slavery  has  been  abolished 
in  the  United  States,  and  is  now  nowhere 
recognized  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
The  public  school  system  has  been  extended 
into  every  State  and  territory  of  our  country, 
and  so  developed  as  to  afford  equal  benefits 
for  both  sexes  and  all  classes  and  all  voca- 
tions. The  public  lands  have  been  thrown 
open  to  settlers  by  our  homestead  law.  It  is 
true  that  our  forests,  our  mines,  and  our 
water  powers  have  been  allowed  to  pass  under 
the  control  of  private  owners,  but  effectual 
reforms  have  been  initiated  to  secure  such 
Governmental  control  of  these  National  pos- 
sessions as  will  conserve  them  for  the  Nation's 
use.  Child  labor  has  been  forbidden,  the 
right  of  workers  to  organize  for  the  protec- 
tion of  their  rights  and  the  promotion  of  their 
interest  has  been  recognized  by  law  both  in 
England  and  the  United  States,  and  suffrage 
has  been  so  extended  that  it  is  either  abso- 
lutely free  or  subject  to  such  qualifications  as 


98      The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

can  easily  be  met  by  a  reasonable  degree  of 
industry  and  thrift. 

In  Great  Britain  the  pocket  boroughs  have 
been  abolished  and  the  House  of  Commons 
has  become  a  true  representative  of  the  com- 
mon people.  The  veto  power  has  been  taken 
from  the  House  of  Lords.  The  government 
of  Ireland  and  of  the  colonies  has  been  re- 
formed, and  the  English  government  is  mak- 
ing careful  efforts  to  derive  and  establish  for 
them  some  system  of  self-government  that 
will  not  hazard  the  national  unity. 

The  schools,  colleges,  and  universities  have 
been  opened  to  men  and  women  of  all  classes 
and  all  creeds.  A  free  school  system  has 
been  provided.  And  a  system  of  taxation 
has  been  Introduced  which  will  eventually 
break  up  the  great  landed  estates  and  so  de- 
stroy the  power  formerly  possessed  by  the 
feudal  lords. 

France  has  become  a  free  constitutional 
Republic.  The  control  of  education  has  been 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  hierarchy  and 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  people.  And  alike 
in  the  United  States,  in  England  and  in 
France  the  power  to  make  industrial  reforms 
is  put  absolutely  Into  the  hands  of  the  people. 

Italy  has  become  a  great  united  nation  and 
a  free  nation  —  the  story  of  its  emancipation 
under  the  triple  leadership  of  Cavour,  Gari- 


Show  Me  Thy  Paths,  O  Lord       99 

baldl  and  Mazzini  is  one  of  the  most 
romantic  and  inspiring  chapters  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race. 

In  Russia  a  revolution  has  overthrown  the 
old  bureaucracy;  and  though  anarchy  fol- 
lowed immediately  after  this  overthrow,  as  I 
am  writing  this  letter  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  the  people  themselves,  with  the 
aid  of  their  democratic  allies,  will  succeed  in 
establishing  an  ordered  and  stable  govern- 
ment. 

He  who  believes  that  history  is  anything 
more  than  merely  a  series  of  accidental  hap- 
penings, who  believes  that  there  is  any  con- 
tinuity and  coherence  in  history,  who  believes 
in  any  ordered  social  evolution,  should  find 
it  difficult  to  believe  that  this  march  of  the 
century  toward  liberty  will  be  halted,  and 
that  at  the  command  of  the  Hun  the  civilized 
world  will  right-about-face  and  travel  back 
to  the  unendurable  despotisms  from  which 
at  such  a  cost  they  have  wrought  their  deliver- 
ance. He  who  believes  that  God  is  in  his 
world,  that  above  all  earthly  plans  and  pur- 
poses there  is  One  who  gives  to  his  children 
their  ideals  and  inspires  them  with  their  cour- 
age, and  that  history  is  in  very  truth  the  work- 
ing out  of  his  plans  for  his  children,  will  find 
despair  for  the  world  impossible.  He  who 
looks  back  only  four  years  may  find  in  those 


lOO     Tlie   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

four  years  food  for  his  doubts  and  discour- 
agements, but  he  who  looks  back  a  hundred 
years  must  have  a  great  genius  for  pessimism 
if  he  can  doubt  in  what  direction  the  unseen 
forces  are  carrying  the  human  race. 

The  Bible  and  Life  unite  in  testifying  that 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  a  Kingdom  of  Liberty 
and  that  God  is  the  Father  of  a  free  people. 


NINTH  LETTER 

CORONATION 

A  FRIEND  of  mine  who  knows  General 
Pershing  intimately  asked  him  last  winter 
what  he  regarded  as  the  most  distinctive  fea- 
ture in  the  character  of  the  French  people. 
My  friend  said  that  General  Pershing  medi- 
tated for  a  moment  and  then  replied: 
"  Their  absolute  disregard  of  death."  Con- 
ingsby  Dawson  sees  the  same  characteristic 
in  the  English  and  American  soldiers  on  the 
front.     In  one  of  his  letters  he  writes: 

A  strong  man  or  a  good  man  or  a  brainless  man 
can  walk  to  meet  pain  with  a  smile  on  his  mouth 
because  he  knows  that  he  is  strong  enough  to  bear 
it,  or  worthy  enough  to  defy  it,  or  because  he  is 
such  a  fool  that  he  has  no  imagination.  But  these 
chaps  are  neither  particularly  strong,  good,  nor 
brainless;  they're  more  like  children,  utterly  casual 
with  regard  to  trouble,  and  quite  aware  that  it  is 
useless  to  struggle  against  their  elders.  So  they 
have  the  merriest  of  times  while  they  can,  and 
when  the  governess.  Death,  summons  them  to  bed, 
they  obey  her  with  unsurprised  quietness.  It  sends 
the  mercury  of  one's  optimism  rising  to  see  the  way 

lOI 


I02     The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

they  do  it.  I  search  my  mind  to  find  the  bigness 
of  motive  which  supports  them,  but  it  forever  evades 
me. 

Yet  I  think  he  himself  answers  this  ques- 
tion In  a  single  sentence  in  another  letter  ex- 
pressing his  own  personal  experience: 

"  It  isn't  when  you  die  that  matters  —  It's 
how." 

To  this  conclusion  the  soldiers  at  the  front 
have  come,  perhaps  without  knowing  it;  cer- 
tainly without  being  able  to  express  it. 
When  they  entered  the  army  they  definitely 
decided  that  life  was  not  too  great  a  price  to 
pay  for  the  privilege  of  rendering  to  the 
world  the  service  to  which  they  were  sum- 
moned. As  one  of  them  expressed  it  to  an- 
other friend  of  mine,  "  I  would  rather  die 
than  live  under  the  rule  of  the  Hun."  So 
"  when  the  governess,  Death,  summons  them 
to  bed,  they  obey  her  with  unsurprised  quiet- 
ness," not  because  resistance  is  impossible, 
but  because  the  summons  is  not  unexpected. 
They  have  made  once  for  all  the  great  deci- 
sion, and  death  comes  to  them  as  naturally 
as  life  in  the  trenches.  This  is  not  true  of 
all,  but  it  is  true  of  a  large  proportion,  and 
the  others  catch  the  spirit  of  life  from  their 
comrades.  For  hope  and  life  of  the  spirit 
are  contagious  no  less  than  fear. 


Coronation  103 

"  Blessed,"  says  the  sacred  writer  In  the 
closing  chapter  of  the  Bible,  "  blessed  are 
they  that  wash  their  robes  that  they  may  have 
the  right  to  the  tree  of  life." 

The  right  to  the  tree  of  life.  Our  soldiers 
disregard  death  because  they  possess  a  death- 
less life,  and  know  that  they  possess  It  with- 
out being  conscious  of  their  knowledge. 
Faith  which  we  possess  we  are  conscious  of; 
but  we  are  often  unconscious  of  the  faith 
which  possesses  us.  Truth  which  we  have 
consciously  acquired  remains  In  our  conscious- 
ness; but  truth  which  has  unperceived  entered 
our  life  through  our  experience  becomes  a 
part  of  our  character,  one  of  the  unseen  forces 
which  ever  after  shapes  our  thinking  and  con- 
trols our  will.  Their  forgetfulness  of  self 
makes  these  soldiers  as  Indifferent  to  death  as 
they  are  to  the  discomforts  of  their  camp  life. 

Immortality  is  not  a  hope  for  the  future; 
it  is  a  present  possession.  Belief  In  immor- 
tality is  not  the  opinion,  founded  on  argu- 
ment, that  I  shall  survive  the  body  when  it 
decays.  It  Is  the  consciousness  that  I  am 
more  than  the  body  which  I  inhabit  and  the 
mastery  of  that  body  by  the  immortal,  in- 
visible personality  which  inhabits  it. 

There  never  was  a  time  when  faith  in  the 
powers  and  values  of  this  spirit  was  as  strong 
as  it  Is  to-day.     Millions  of  young  men  — 


I04     The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

Belgian,  French,  Italian,  English,  American 
—  are  carrying  their  mortal  bodies  into  ex- 
periences sure  to  be  those  of  great  discomfort, 
liable  to  be  those  of  excruciating  pain.  And 
there  are  millions  of  fathers  and  mothers 
who  are  proud  that  they  have  sons  who  dare 
to  carry  their  bodies  to  the  torture  chamber. 
The  world  has  often  witnessed  a  like  faith  in 
spiritual  values:  a  like  conviction  that  the 
spirit  of  honor,  patriotism,  humanity,  piety,  is 
worth  dying  for.  But  never  has  it  witnessed 
that  faith  on  so  great  a  scale.  And  never 
before  has  been  so  terribly  illustrated,  as  Ger- 
many is  illustrating  in  the  present  war,  the 
effect  on  character  of  a  belief  that  the  only 
values  are  material  values,  the  only  prosperity 
a  material  prosperity,  and  the  only  force  a 
material  force. 

There  are  various  arguments  for  immor- 
tality, but  the  only  convincing  argument  is 
the  possession  of  immortality.  There  are 
various  artificial  tests  by  which  the  Church 
has  endeavored  to  determine  who  possesses 
this  gift  of  a  deathless  life.  One  of  these 
is  a  confession  of  faith  in  invisible  and  in- 
tangible realities.  Another  is  appreciation 
of  and  participation  in  worship,  the  signifi- 
cance of  which  depends  wholly  on  that  faith. 
These  ecclesiastical  tests  are  perhaps  the  best 


Coronation  105 

that  the  wit  of  man  could  devise.  But  they 
are  artificial. 

Life  is  the  real  test.  And  when  a  man 
deliberately  gives  up,  In  his  devotion  to, 
the  service  of  others,  all  that  makes  phys^ 
ical  life  worth  living,  and  his  experience 
culminates  by  an  eager  offer  of  life  itself  for 
such  intangible  values  as  honor,  courage,  love, 
he  affords  the  best  possible  evidence  that  he 
possesses  Immortality.  This  evidence  may 
not  be  convincing;  but  It  Is  far  more  convinc- 
ing than  any  of  the  tests  which  the  Church  has 
ever  been  able  to  contrive.  He  who  makes 
this  great  renunciation  thereby  gives  assur- 
ance that  above  all  things  which  are  seen  and 
temporal  he  values  the  things  which  are  un- 
seen and  eternal.  To  him  who  possesses  the 
deathless  life  death  may  easily  appear  to  be 
but  an  incident  in  that  life.  And  if  he  does 
not  wholly  disregard  death,  he  will  certainly 
agree  with  Coningsby  Dawson  that  "  it  isn't 
when  you  die  that  matters  —  but  how." 

Who  has  better  grounds  for  sharing  In 
Paul's  summary  of  his  life  than  our  soldiers 
at  the  front:  "  I  have  fought  the  good  fight, 
I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith  "  ?  Paul  does  not  say  that  he  has  gained 
the  victory,  or  won  the  race,  or  vanquished  his 
doubts.     In  truth  his  letters  give  abundant 


io6     The  Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

evidence  of  the  reverse.  He  had  not  gained 
the  victory:  "  I  buffet  my  body  and  bring  it 
into  bondage.'*  He  had  not  won  the  race: 
*'  Not  that  I  have  already  obtained  or  am 
already  made  perfect,  but  I  press  on."  He 
had  not  vanquished  his  doubts:  "perplexed 
yet  not  unto  despair."  Who  of  us  In  pew  or 
pulpit  In  our  churches  at  home  have  fought 
a  more  courageous  light,  or  continued  more 
unflinchingly  to  the  end  In  our  course,  or  main- 
tained a  more  unshaken  loyalty  In  spite  of 
perplexity  than  these  soldier  boys  In  the 
trenches?  Who  of  us  has  better  met  the 
test  of  hard  experience  or  furnished  better 
evidence  that  by  our  mastery  of  the  body  by 
the  spirit  we  have  a  claim  to  the  tree  of  life? 
What  Is  It  to  wash  our  robes  In  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb  but  to  share  his  spirit  of  sacrifice 
and  give  our  life  for  the  life  of  the  world  as 
he  gave  his  life  for  the  life  of  the  world? 
Who  have  done  this  more  simply,  more 
sincerely,  more  devotedly  than  the  soldiers 
who  have  offered  their  lives,  not  merely  for 
their  country  but  for  an  unknown  people,  of  a 
different  land,  a  different  language  and  often 
of  a  different  religious  faith?  What  the  Be- 
yond may  have  for  them  we  do  not  know  and 
cannot  guess.  But  we  may  be  very  sure  that 
whatever  may  have  been  their  faults  or  their 
transgressions    here    below,    the    righteous 


Coronation  107 

Father  will  not  refuse  to  these  heroic  cross- 
bearers  the  crown  of  righteousness. 

Do  not  imagine  that  I  think  the  soldier 
earns  heaven  by  dying  for  a  great  cause,  any 
more  than  I  think  his  brother  at  home  earns 
it  by  accepting  a  creed  and  taking  part  in  a 
sacrament.  Heaven  is  not  for  sale.  I  be- 
lieve with  Paul  that  God  ^ives  eternal  life  to 
all  those  who  by  patient  continuance  in  well- 
doing seek  for  glory  and  honor  and  immor- 
tality; and  we  may  well  believe  that  he  who 
gives  his  life  for  the  life  of  the  world  puts 
glory  and  honor  and  immortality  above  the 
honors,  the  emoluments  and  the  pleasures  of 
this  mortal  life. 

Coningsby  Dawson  writes  his  mother, 
'*  Your  prayers  weave  round  me  a  mantle  of 
defense."  You  can  weave  round  your  boy 
this  mantle  of  defense  while  he  is  still  here 
where  he  can  sometimes  hear  from  you  and 
you  can  sometimes  hear  from  him  and  he  can 
know  that  you  are  praying  for  him.  But  if 
the  great  silence  should  come,  what  then? 
Must  you  cease  praying  for  him?  Surely 
not.  The  object  of  your  prayer  is  not  to  let 
your  heavenly  Father  know  of  your  need  or 
your  son's  need.  "  Your  Father  knoweth 
what  things  ye  have  need  of  before  ye  ask 
him."     Nor  is  it  to  awaken  his  interest  in 


io8     The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

your  son  by  your  pleadings.  If  not  a  spar- 
row falls  to  the  ground  without  your  Father, 
can  you  think  his  children  fall  by  thousands 
in  this  great  harvest  of  death  and  he  does 
not  care?  Prayer  Is  talking  with  God.  It  is 
carrying  to  him  our  joys  and  our  sorrows, 
our  victories  and  our  defeats,  our  laughter 
and  our  tears.  It  is  inviting  him  to  share 
with  us  our  life  that  we  may  share  with  him 
his  life.  Surely  we  should  not  shut  him  out 
from  sharing  our  deepest  experiences,  nor 
shut  ourselves  out  from  him  in  the  hour  of 
our  greatest  need.  Surely  he  who  craved  the 
companionship  of  his  three  dearest  friends  in 
his  Gethsemane  can  understand  our  craving 
his  fellowship  In  our  Gethsemane.  *'  Yea, 
though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  thou 
art  with  me."  How  can  he  be  with  me  if  I 
do  not  invite  his  companionship? 

After  the  death  of  my  wife  I  found  among 
her  papers  the  prayer  given  below.  It  Is 
said  to  have  been  written  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
on  the  death  of  his  son  and  subsequently  used, 
with  some  modification,  at  his  own  burial  in 
Westminster  Abbey  in  May,  1898.  As  I  do 
not  find  In  Mr.  John  Morley's  life  of  Glad- 
stone any  reference  to  this  prayer,  I  am  not 
sure  that  the  newspaper  report  of  its  author- 


Coronation  109 

ship  Is  correct.  But  it  seems  to  me  an  ex- 
pression of  faith  as  beautiful  in  its  frankness 
as  in  its  reverence  and  as  beautiful  in  its  child- 
like simplicity  as  in  its  beauty  of  expression: 

A    PRAYER    FOR   A    FRIEND   OUT   OF    SIGHT 

O  God,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  in 
whose  embrace  all  creatures  live,  in  whatsoever 
world  or  condition  they  be;  I  beseech  Thee  for 
him  whose  name  and  dwelling  place  and  every  need 
Thou  knowest.  Lord,  vouchsafe  him  light  and 
rest,  peace  and  refreshment,  joy  and  consolation,  in 
Paradise,  in  the  companionship  of  saints,  in  the 
piesence  of  Christ,  in  the  ample  folds  of  Thy  great 
love. 

Grant  that  his  life  (so  troubled  here)  may  un- 
fold itself  in  Thy  sight,  and  find  a  sweet  employ- 
ment in  the  spacious  fields  of  eternity.  If  he  hath 
ever  been  hurt  or  maimed  by  any  unhappy  word  or 
deed  of  mine,  I  pray  Thee  of  Thy  great  pity  to  heal 
and  restore  him,  that  he  may  serve  Thee  without 
hindrance. 

Tell  him,  O  gracious  Lord,  if  it  may  be,  how 
much  I  love  him  and  miss  him  and  long  to  see  him 
again ;  and,  if  there  be  ways  in  which  he  may  come, 
vouchsafe  nm  to  me  as  a  guide  and  a  guard,  and 
grant  me  a  sense  of  his  nearness,  in  such  degree  as 
Thy  laws  permit. 

If  in  aught  I  can  minister  to  his  peace,  be  pleased 
of  Thy  love  to  let  this  be;  and  mercifully  keep  me 
from  every  act  which  may  deprive  me  of  the  sight 


no     The   Twentieth  Century  Crusade 

of  him  as  soon  as  our  trial-time  is  over,  or  mar  the 
fullness  of  our  joy  when  the  end  of  the  days  hath 
come. 

Pardon,  O  gracious  Lord  and  Father,  whatsoever 
is  amiss  in  this  my  prayer,  and  let  Thy  will  be 
done;  for  my  will  is  blind  and  erring,  but  Thine  is 
able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we 
ask  or  think;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Amen. 

As  this  war  goes  on  the  number  of  fathers 
and  mothers,  brothers  and  sisters,  wives  and 
friends  bereft  and  unutterably  lonely  will  be 
multiplied.  I  wish  that  this  prayer,  or  one 
conceived  In  the  same  spirit,  might  be  used  in 
the  service  of  every  church  from  which  any 
son  has  gone  forth  never  to  return  because 
he  has  laid  down  his  life  that  the  world  may 
be  a  home  in  which  God's  children  may  live 
as  brethren  in  peace  and  safety. 


THE    END 


PBINTBD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES    OF    AMEBIOA 


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THE  WAY  TO  LIFE.   By  henry  churchiel  king 

A  discussion  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  similar  to  that  in 
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The  War  and  the  Bible 


By  H.  D.  ENELOW,  D.D. 
Of  the  Temple  Emanu-El,   New   York. 


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Contents 


The    Spiritual    Problems 
of  the  War. 

The  Attitude  of  the  Bible 
Toward  War. 

The  Ethics  of  War  in  the 
Bible. 

Some  Great  Wars  of  the 
Bible. 


Heroes    of   War   in   the 
Bible. 

The  War  Poetry  of  the 
Bible. 

War  Prayers  in  the  Bible. 

Parallels  to  the   Present 
War  in  the  Bible. 

The  Ideal  of  Peace  in  the 
Bible. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers     64^6  Fifth  Avenue     New  York 


Theological  Semmary-Spefr  Library 


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